Defensive Concepts and the Security Dilemma

Abstract

Identifying the’ security dilemma’ as a core problem of East-West tensions in the 1980s, defensive proponents argued that it could be resolved if both sides adopted manifestly defensive military doctrines. This line of argument ran counter to the official Western view that, given the Soviet threat, Western security depended on maintaining or increasing NATO’s military strength as a clear signal of resolve to the Soviet Union, and that this sometimes meant acquiring offensive capabilities.¹ This chapter explores how defensive theorists have defined and used the security dilemma concept and identifies major defensive-concept problems that lie at the heart of security dilemma theorising, including those that have arisen in the post-Cold War environment.