Drawing on their daily involvement with defense issues and their interactions with the military and political elements of the national security community, civilian and military defense analysts in the U.S. Army War Colleger Strategic Studies Institute offer a lucid analysis of the complex mosaic of strategic and European defense issues. Their contributions are probing, balanced, and provocative, designed for students of foreign and defense affairs, as well as for policymakers. In the first section of the book, the offensive and defensive aspects of the strategic balance between the United States and the Soviet Union are examined. Going beyond sterile, static weapons counts, the authors address the relationship between the overall disposition of military forces and deterrence and are attentive to possible future developments, including the impact of new technologies and changing Sino-Soviet relations that are likely to affect the U.S.-USSR relationship. The second section of the book focuses on crucial East-West defense issues within Europe: the balance of conventional and theater nuclear forces, prospects for European arms control, the impact of chemical weapons on deterrence and defense, and the fashioning of an effective nonnuclear NATO defense. The book concludes with a chapter that illuminates U.S.-West European historical and cultural divergences, explaining in a new way the political strains that frequently plague the alliance.

Also of Interest -- Preface -- Strategic Issues -- The Changing Strategic Balance and US Defense Planning -- All Features Grate and Stall: Soviet Strategic Vulnerabilities and the Future of Deterrence -- The Strategic Implications of Civil Defense -- China and the Great Power Balance -- Ballistic Missile Defense, Space-Based Weapons, and the Defense of the West -- Start: Problems and Prospects -- European Security Issues -- Soviet Theater Nuclear Capabilities: the European Nuclear Balance in Transition -- The Soviet Threat to Europe: Prospects for the 1980's -- Chemical Weapons Rearmament and the Security of Europe: can Support be Mustered? -- Improving Europe's Conventional Defenses -- The Once and Future Quest: European Arms Control-Issues and Prospects -- Nato Defense through European Eyes -- Epilogue