SDI, Alliance Coherence, and East-West Nuclear Stability

Abstract

The nuclear modernisation programme, offensive and defensive, now being implemented or seriously proposed by the Western nuclear states and the Soviet Union pose critical problems for the stability of the European and global nuclear balance. The Reagan administration’s Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) and the dramatic growth of British and French nuclear capabilities add new strains on the arms race now underway between the superpowers. Current and emerging instabilities must be addressed promptly along a broad political front, within and outside the framework of the Atlantic Alliance, before they further split the alliance and damage efforts — principally those being pursued at Geneva in the superpower arms control talks — to manage the nuclear balance and the conflicts that divide the two blocs in Europe and elsewhere.