Containing the histories (from 1945 to the present) of the nuclear strategies of NATO, Britain and France, and of the defence preferences of the FRG (West Germany), this book shows how strategies were functions of a perceived Soviet threat and an American 'nuclear guarantee'. There were three options for West Europeans: a compromise with differing American needs in NATO, pursued by Britain and the FRG; national nuclear forces, developed by Britain and France; and projects for an independent European nuclear force.
Despite momentous change, NATO remains a crucial safeguard of security and peace. Today’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with nearly thirty members and a global reach, differs strikingly from the alliance of twelve created in 1949 to “keep the Americans in, the Russians out, and the Germans down.” These differences are not simply the result of the Cold War’s end, 9/11, or recent twenty-first-century developments but represent a more general pattern of adaptability first seen in the incorporation of Germany as a full member of the alliance in the early 1950s. Unlike other enduring post–World War II institutions that continue to reflect the international politics of their founding era, NATO stands out for the boldness and frequency of its transformations over the past seventy years. In this compelling book, Seth A. Johnston presents readers with a detailed examination of how NATO adapts. Nearly every aspect of NATO—including its missions, functional scope, size, and membership—is profoundly different than at the organization’s founding. Using a theoretical framework of “critical junctures” to explain changes in NATO’s organization and strategy throughout its history, Johnston argues that the alliance’s own bureaucratic actors played important and often overlooked roles in these adaptations. Touching on renewed confrontation between Russia and the West, which has reignited the debate about NATO’s relevance, as well as a quarter century of post–Cold War rapprochement and more than a decade of expeditionary effort in Afghanistan, How NATO Adapts explores how crises from Ukraine to Syria have again made NATO’s capacity for adaptation a defining aspect of European and international security. Students, scholars, and policy practitioners will find this a useful resource for understanding NATO, transatlantic relations, and security in Europe and North America, as well as theories about change in international institutions.
While international security has radically changed since 1989, nuclear weapons remain a subject of debate and contention. This paper provides an analytical framework for understanding post-Cold War Europe's strategic debates. It offers insights into Europe's national nuclear policies and perspectives. It examines the possible outcomes of current debates, and gives policy recommendations for managing the new nuclear debates faced by Europe, and by NATO.
This is a detailed, single volume analysis of Britain's changing position in the world during the twentieth century. It places British policy making in the appropriate domestic and international contexts, offers an alternative to the more negative, 'decline'-obsessed assessments of Britain's role and influence in global affairs. This book suggests that Britain's leaders did a better job than some historians think. Michael Turner, in order to understand why they took the options they did, investigates their motives and aims within the international environment within which they operated.
In 1951, Canada sent troops to western Europe to support its NATO allies. The brigade helped Canada establish its international status. In private, however, Canadian officials and military leaders expressed grave doubts about NATO's strategies and operational plans. Despite these reservations, they sent military families overseas and implemented personnel policies that permanently changed the distribution of the defence budget and the character of the Canadian Army. This original account of the evolution of the Canadian Army from a small training cadre to a truly national force offers a new perspective on military policy and diplomacy in the Cold War era.
This book sheds fresh light on developments in British nuclear weapons policy between October 1964, when the Labour Party came back into power under Harold Wilson following a thirteen year absence, and June 1970 when the Conservative government of Edward Heath was elected.
Anglo-German relations since 1945 have been generally cordial but subject to bouts of acute tension. This volume by leading historians from both countries examines major political issues and broader contacts between the two societies. It suggests that British perceptions have remained coloured by fears of German dominance, aggravated by the success of the Federal Republic and the relative decline of Britain in the post-war period.
This well-researched book details the ambiguity in British policy towards Europe in the Cold War as it sought to pursue détente with the Soviet Union whilst upholding its commitments to its NATO allies. From the early 1950s, Britain pursued a dual policy of strengthening the West whilst seeking détente with the Soviet Union. British statesmen realized that only through compromise with Moscow over the German question could the elusive East-West be achieved. Against this, the West German hard line towards the East (endorsed by the United States) was seen by the British as perpetuating tension between the two blocs. This cast British policy onto an insoluble dilemma, as it was caught between its alliance obligations to the West German state and its search for compromise with the Soviet bloc. Charting Britain's attempts to reconcile this contradiction, this book argues that Britain successfully adapted to the new realities and made hitherto unknown contributions towards détente in the early 1960s, whilst drawing towards Western Europe and applying for membership of the EEC in 1961. Drawing on unpublished US and UK archives, Britain, Germany and the Cold War casts new light on the Cold War, the history of détente and the evolution of European integration. This book will appeal to students of Cold War history, British foreign policy, German politics, and international history.
The Cold War offers a brief but detailed treatment of one of the most complex eras of the 20th Century. In this fully revised second edition, J.P.D. Dunbabin, drawing on international scholarship and using much new material from communist sources, describes a world in which covert operations could be as important as outright diplomacy, 'soft' power as influential as 'hard', and in which competing ideologies ruled the hearts as much as the heads of the leaders in power. Dunbabin’s account is global in scope, taking into account the importance of players beyond the superpowers, and shedding light on the proxy conflicts such as those in Africa and the Middle East that, if not caused by the continuing stalemate between the great powers, were used as weapons within it.
