ABSTRACT
In the Introduction it was argued that changes in the balance of power between the United States and the Soviet Union have put increased pressure on crisis management in the 1980s and beyond. In keeping with this analysis the papers in this volume are not optimistic about the superpowers' capacity to manage serious political crisis. The thrust of this book is thus consistent with the "new tone of urgency in strategic analyses of the 1980s" which James Richardson mentions in the concluding paragraph of Chapter Two.
