ABSTRACT
In relation to the days when our current strategy was formulated, we are no longer the world's unchallenged military power; Soviet forces, though differently constituted, match ours in strategic and tactical military strength. They will continue to do so even after the retrenchments of the past year or so and after all the treaty reductions in the offing. Economic concerns loom larger in our daily activities than military threats. The greatest physical threat to our security comes not from the possibility of a direct attack by the Soviet Union or any other nation, but from Third-World instabilities leading to crises such as the conflict with Iraq, that can end in major war or our economic decline. Our relationships, both economic and military, with Western Europe and Japan, as well as Soviet relationships with Eastern Europe, are not the same now as they were when we formulated our national security strategy. We do not have a national security strategy that matches these new world conditions. This chapter reviews the new world conditions, briefly, as a prelude to offering a revised national security strategy.
