Rethinking Security Arrangements in Europe

This Note analyzes the implications for Western security policy of the momentous changes taking place in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. It discusses the ongoing changes in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the European Community, and why they are making the existing security regime obsolete and inadequate. It then describes a suggested new security architecture designed to facilitate the removal of all Soviet forces from Eastern Europe and the reduction of NATO forces to well below present levels, to encourage the evolution of NATO into a primarily political association, to remove security-related external barriers to the unification of Germany, and to encourage the development of independent, democratic governments in Eastern Europe. It addresses the implications of the asymmetrical geo-strategic positions in Europe for the United States and the Soviet Union, and suggests why the new architecture is better designed than present arrangements to handle a possible policy reversal in the Soviet Union.