ABSTRACT
The Western alliance, writ large, is in trouble. 1 It is torn by dissensions over a variety of issues ranging from export subsidies for steel shipments and agricultural commodities, to the proposed deployment of new medium-range missiles in Europe and controversies over fair defense burden-sharing. As Hans-Dietrich Genscher, West German Foreign Minister, observes, "agreements in the Alliance on policy towards the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, as well as agreement on political, economic and military strategy" have been "the basis of the Alliance's cohesion and its ability to act." 2 However, the development of an integrated strategy for East-West trade has never been a simple task. Although the U.S. was relatively successful in enlisting allied support for a policy of economic warfare during the Cold War years, individual allies' trade policies with Communist states have been diverging since the onset of detente - a fact that has not been lost on the Soviets. Unquestionably, a primary element in the altered allied relationship is the significant change in the relative economic strength of the partners - the European Community's economy is now slightly greater or roughly equal to that of the U.S.
