Abstract
This chapter looks at resources for defence — not military budgets, soldiers or weapons, but rather the resources of the confidence of the public in the wisdom of their governments’ defence policy, and in the adequacy of the support this implies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Stanley Hoffman, Duties Beyond Borders (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1981).
Peter Schmidt, ‘Public Opinion and Security Policy in the Federal Republic of Germany’, Orbis, Vol. 28, No. 4, Winter 1985, pp. 717–42.
Gebhard Schweigler, West German Foreign Policy. The Domestic Setting (Washington, DC: Praeger, 1984).
‘Ultimately, two factors will bring Europe and the United States into conffict in the Middle East. One is the contrast between their vulnerability and their capability, the most vulnerable actor being the least powerful. The other stems from a different emotional relation to Israel.’ Dominique Moisi, ‘Europe, the United States and the Middle East Conundrum’, Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2, Summer 1984, pp. 161–82.
Heinrich Siegmann, The Science Center Berlin Mail Survey of Security Policy Elites in Five Nations: Codebook and Marginals of Responses (Berlin: Publication Series of the International Institute for Comparative Social Research, 1983), p. 22.
Gebhard Schweigler, ‘Pragmatik statt Programme’, Die neue Ordnung, Vol. 37, No. 3, June 1986, pp. 209–20.
Christoph Bertram, ‘Public Confidence and Western Defense in the 1980s’, Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2, Summer 1984, pp. 133–43.
Leslie H. Gelb, The Irony of Vietnam: The System Worked (Washington, DC: Brookings Institute, 1979).
Richard E. Neustadt, Alliance Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970).
John Chipman, French Military Policy and African Security, Adelphi Paper No. 201 (London: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1985).
Theodore Achilles, ‘US Role in Negotiations That Led to Atlantic Alliance’, NATO Review, 1979, No. 5, pp. 1–5.
An analysis of communiqués from NATO bodies since 1949 shows a gradual development of a common threat assessment among member-states’ representatives in the North Atlantic Council and the Defence Planning Committee concerning events outside the Treaty area. The official recognition that those events may affect their common interests as members of the Alliance is one reality, the other consists of public opinion and political groupings within NATO countries whose positions are likely to be less unanimous. See NATO Information Service, Texts of Final Communiqués, Brussels, Vol. I (1949–74) 1975, Vol. II (1975— 80) 1981. For more recent communiqués see Atlantic News, Brussels, various numbers.
Even in a geostrategically exposed country like West Germany more than 60 per cent of the national elites in 1980/81 believed that a major war could start from an oil supply disruption or a regional war of superpower proxies while only 20 per cent of the same group saw a conventional Soviet breakthrough or a strategic nuclear strike as a cause for a possible third world war. See Dietmar Schoessler, Matthias Jung, SIPLA-Umfrage 1980/81 (Tabellenband), University of Mannheim 1982, pp. 164–17.
Miroslav Nincic, How War Might Spread to Europe (London and Philadelphia: Taylor and Francis, 1985).
Fred Halliday, Soviet Policy in the Arc of Crisis, (Washington, DC: Institute for Policy Studies, 1981).
Certainly part of the US public and some of the experts have held a similarly cautious position. See Joshua M. Epstein, ‘Soviet Vulnerabilities in Iran and the RDF Deterrent’, International Security, Vol. 6, No. 2, Fall 1981, pp. 126–58.
Hannes Adomeit, Soviet Risk-Taking and Crisis Behaviour- A Theoreti-cal and Empirical Analysis (London: Allen & Unwin, 1982).
To mention just one current example: ‘Reagan’s Choke Points. Passages Cited by Reagan Hold Key to Defense Operations Around World’, International Herald Tribune, February 15–16, 1986, p. 3.
Edward Pearce, The British Labour Party and Defence’, Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2, Summer 1984, pp. 143–52. Heinrich Winkler, `The German Social Democratic Party and Defence’, Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2, Summer 1984, pp. 153–60.
The US, too, worked to lower the dependence on Middle Eastern crude, especially since it became obvious that the United States’ economy would suffer from price related effects of a disruption in the same approximate range as would the European allies. Stanley R. Sloan, Western Vulnerabil-ity to a Disruption of Persian Gulf Oil Supplies: US Interests and Options, Congressional Research Service, Report 83–24F, Washington, 1983.
‘Linkage’ was a widely shared concept among Americans during both the Carter and the Reagan Administrations. Zbigniew Brzezinski, ‘Crises regionales: Gerer l’imprevisible’, Politique Internationale, Vol. 6, No. 30, Winter 1985/86, pp. 189–200. See also Foreign Secretary George Shultz’s speech at the RAND/UCLA Conference in Los Angeles on 19 October 1984.
Washington’s reaction to the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and the war mongering rhetoric of the early Reagan Administration certainly contributed to an unprecedented peak of 32 per cent of the European Community population in 1981/82 who regarded a new world war in the next ten years as likely. See Peter Schmidt, Public Opinion and Security Policy in the Federal Republic of Germany: Elite and Mass Opinion in a Comparative Perspective, RAND Paper P-7016, Santa Monica, 1984.
The unequivocal response of Britain to the Argentine invasion of the Falklands shows that a majority in the United Kingdom is again aware of regional threats to vital Western interests.
France’s entanglement in the Gulf war via arms trade has its roots in economic and political considerations during the 1973–74 oil crisis. This subject is treated from a French point of view in Basma Kodmani, Quelle s#x00E9;curit#x00E9; pour le Golfe? (Paris: Editions Economica, 1984).
According to the Center of Strategic Studies of the University of Tel Aviv the following percentages of all terrorist attacks in 1984 were given: 40.5 in Western Europe, 20.6 in the Middle East, 16.5 in Africa, 13.6 in South America, 2.9 in Central America, 1.5 in North America, 0.2 in Eastern Europe. See Gerd Langguth, ‘Origins and Goals of Terrorism in Europe’, Aussenpolitik, Vol. 37, No. 2, 1986, pp. 162–74.
The US concern over transatlantic cleavages in both East—West relations and out-of-area questions is expressed paradigmatically in hearings and reports of the United States Congress. Two examples: United States Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, NATO Today: The Alliance in Evolution (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1982). United States Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Crisis in the Atlantic Alliance: Origins and Implications (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1982).
Seth P. Tillman, The United States in the Middle East (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982).
David Yost, ‘French Policy in Chad and the Libyan Challenge’, Orbis, Vol. 21, No. 4, Winter 1983, pp. 967–97.
Gene I. Rochlin, US Military Forces and the Persian Gulf, (Berkeley: University of California, 1982).
Alvin J. Cotrell, Michael L. Moodie, The United States and the Persian Gulf. Past Mistakes, Present Needs (New Brunswick and London: National Strategy Information Center, Transaction Books, 1984).
David S. Yost, France and Conventional Defense in Central Europe, EAI Papers No. 7, Spring 1984.
See Chapter 4.
Chancellor Schmidt was not alone in this position. Defenders of his line argued against the use of a West German force outside what they consider to be the NATO geographical area with a reference to Article 87 A of the Constitution. This says that ‘Apart from defense, the armed forces may only be used to the extent explicitly permitted by the Basic Law’. Such possible additional employment of the armed forces is taken to mean service in natural catastrophes or domestic disturbances. They argued further for a close interpretation of Article 115 A of the Constitution, which links ‘the determination of a state of defense’ to an attack on West German territory or the imminence of such an attack. Opposite positions, instead, stressed that Article 24 of the Constitution, which permits the country’s membership in a military pact, also allows it to ‘consent to such limitations of sovereignty as will bring about and secure a peaceful and lasting order in Europe and among the nations of the world’. This reading even sees a mission for the Federal Republic to become militarily active and take responsibility in certain cases, though not on a unilateral basis.
Guenther Gillessen, ‘Das Grundesetz sagt nichts ueber den Indischen Ozean’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 3 October, 1980, p. 3.
A key argument in this context was that all German troops are assigned to NATO and can only be deployed in accordance with collective Allied decisions.
Assembly of the West European Union, Security and Terrorism, Report of the Commission of General Affairs, Paris, 29 April 1986.
According to a Newsweek poll, 71 per cent in the United States approved of the raid; other surveys showed up to 83 per cent approval. See Newsweek, Vol. 57, No. 17, 28 April 1986, pp. 10–14.
‘Howe Urging Further Moves’, The Times, 24 April 1986, p. 4.
‘Rambos Tochter und die blumigen Grusse aus Washington’, Frankfurter Rundschau, 18 April 1986, p. 3.
‘France the odd man out in bombing protests’, The Times, 21 April 1984, p. 1.
The Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) was to guarantee the centre-piece of the bilateral Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, the total withdrawal of Israel from the Sinai.
Alfred Pijpers, ‘Die europaische Beteiligung an der Sinai-Friedenstruppe (MFO)’, Europa Archiv, Vol. 38, No. 21, 1983, pp. 675–84.
The Multinational Force (MNF) was formed in August 1982 after the US government mediated a cease-fire between Israel, which invaded Lebanon in June of that year, and the PLO, whose leaders and guerrillas were cornered in Beirut as a result of the invasion.
Helmut Hubel, Frankreichs Rolle im Nahen Osten (Bonn: Europa Union Verlag, 1986).
Quotidien deParis, 26 October 1983, p. 1.
For more details on the Italian position during the two MNF missions see Chapter 4.
David Allen and Alfred Pijpers (eds), European Foreign Policy-Making and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (The Hague/Boston/Lancaster: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1984).
Loren Jenkins, ‘Allies Shun Concept of Multinational Force’, The Washington Post, 29 August 1984, p. 1.
Thomas J. Kennedy, Jr., NATO Politico-Military Consultation: Shaping Alliance Decisions (Washington: National Defense University Press, 1984).
See Chapter 6.
Charles A. Kupchan, ‘Regional Security and the Out-of-Area Problem’, in Stephen J. Flanagan, Fen Osler Hampson (eds), Securing Europe’s Future (London/Sidney: Croom Helm, 1986), pp. 280–301.
Fredo Dannenbring, ‘Consultations: The Political Lifeblood of the Alliance’, NATO Review, No. 6, 1986, pp. 1–7.
Until 1982 the US administration favoured a direct support of US Rapid Deployment Forces in the Middle East. The extremely small echo of this appeal heard in Europe — among other reasons — prompted Washington to switch to a more acceptable solution: the compensation approach.
Carsten Lehmann Sorensen, ‘A European Security Policy? The Attitudes of Candidates for the European Parliament’, Scandinavian Political Studies, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1980, pp. 347–71.
Henri Labrousse, ‘Contribution de l’Europe a la sécurité dans le Golfe’, in B. Kodmani (ed.), Quelle sécurité pour le Golfe? (Paris: Editions Economica, 1984), pp. 177–92.
Two main reasons were mentioned in this context: (1) the WEU has transferred all its military forces and commands to NATO; (2) the WEU treaty refers to ‘defence’ as the main purpose of the Union which - in a narrow interpretation — would exclude the projection of military power.
Western European Union, Index of Presidents, Chairmen and Reports of the Assembly of Western European Union, Paris, 1983.
Karl Kaiser, Winston Lord, Thierry de Montbrial and David Watt, Western Security (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1981). Phil Williams, ‘Revitalising the Western Alliance: Proposals for Change’, Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2, Summer 1984, pp. 119–32.
Christopher Coker, The Future of the Atlantic Alliance (London: Macmil-lan Press, 1984). Lawrence Freedman (ed.), The Troubled Alliance (Guildford: St Martin’s Press 1983); Baard Bredrup Knudsen, Europe versus America: Foreign Policy in the 1980s (Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Allanheld, 1983).
Dominique Moisi, ‘Superpower Stakes in the Middle East: A French Point of View’, AEI Foreign Policy and Defense Review, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1986, pp. 43–9.
Gregory G. Treverton, Making the Alliance Work: The United States and Western Europe (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985).
Gregory Flynn, The Internal Fabric of Western Security (London: Croom Helm, 1981).
Simon Serfaty, The United States, Western Europe, and the Third World: Allies and Adversaries, The Center for Strategic and International Studies, Significant Issues Series, Vol. II, No. 4, Washington, DC, 1980.
Edward A. Kolodziej, European Perspectives on Europe’s Roles in the World: The Partial Partner, The Wilson Center, Working Paper No. 17, Washington, DC, 1981.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1989 Joseph I. Coffey and Gianni Bonvicini
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rummel, R. (1989). Political Perceptions and Military Responses to Out-of-Area Challenges. In: Coffey, J.I., Bonvicini, G. (eds) The Atlantic Alliance and the Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10250-1_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10250-1_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-10252-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-10250-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)