Detente and Alliance Politics in the Postwar Era: Strategic Dilemmas in United States - West German Relations.

摘要

Throughout the postwar period, detente has been a central issue in relations between the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany. This thesis argues that detente is inherently limited: as a strategy for achieving objectives that have remained remarkably consistent throughout the postwar period, detente is predicated on the maintenance of a strong alliance; to the extent that it raises basic and perhaps irresolvable questions within the alliance, it tends to threaten alliance cohesion and thus undermine its own foundation.