Through European Eyes: Should NATO Strategy Be Changed

摘要

Squabbles between the Western European members of NATO and the United States are not a recent development. What is alarming in 1981 is the frequency with which one hears that this time it is different. The more sanguine view, that trans-Atlantic differences are the normal state of affairs, is being drowned out be concern over a new divergence in the way that NATO Europe and the United States see their respective interest. Perhaps, according to the more pessimistic interpretation, difference are so great that they will spell the end of NATO. Whether alarmist or accurate, concern over the possible demise of NATO- an institution that has served so long, so well- suggests that responsible Americans might be ready to see things through European eyes and take steps to insure the survival of NATO and to prove the events of the early 1980s just another rough spot in the road to NATO cooperation.