ABSTRACT
The analyses and observations offered in the previous chapters set the stage for a conference on Conventional Arms Control and the Security of Europe held at the Reichstag in West Berlin, September 16-18, 1987, The conference brought together defense analysts and government officials from the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Great Britain, Norway, and the United States and was sponsored by the Atlantik-Brücke, The RAND Corporation, the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, and the U.S. embassy in Bonn. Many of the participants either were active or former officials directly involved in European defense and security issues. The conference convened in the midst of heightened negotiating activity between the United States and USSR on intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF), with the two superpowers issuing an agreement in principle to conclude a treaty at the same time as the conference. This agreement in turn culminated in the signing of a treaty eliminating intermediate- and short-range missiles on December 8, 1987. These developments on theater nuclear systems raised a number of serious issues regarding the future role of conventional forces in European security. The formal agenda, reflected in the chapter titles, covered a multitude of concerns surrounding these conventional forces, ranging from the prospects for a new political order that could reduce their importance to detailed assessments of NATO's defense and arms control requirements in the near-term. This chapter is organized around three broad themes that emerged from these diverse treatments: the political-military setting; conventional defense needs; and options for conventional arms control.
