NATO Strategy and Nuclear Defense

(Hardback)

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Description

The central problem discussed in this timely volume is the continuing question of how to incorporate nuclear weapons into NATO strategy in such a way that the military defense posture possesses sufficient credibility to deter the Soviet Union and reassure the allies. The evolution and differences in the strategic concepts of the major nations in the Alliance are analyzed by examining the character of the opposing military capabilities and some of the practical problems of fighting a local nuclear battle, a doctrine of nuclear constraints is proposed that would make the nature and purpose of employing tactical nuclear weapons more distinguishable, thus hopefully lessening miscalculation that might lead to escalation to general nuclear war. This is the first comprehensive conceptual analysis of a nuclear doctrine for actually fighting a land battle in Europe.

Reviews

. . . this book presents a well-reasoned approach to flexible response and arms control. Portions of it serve as excellent roundups of current US-USSR treaties, historical confrontations between the two, the doctrine of flexible response and its history, and the battlefield doctrines of NATO and the USSR. It even provides a concise definition of the term doctrine: "codified sense held in common." Overall, NATO Strategy and Nuclear Defense is a well-done analysis of one of the most pressing yet poorly understood aspects of national strategy.-Airpower Journal
." . . this book presents a well-reasoned approach to flexible response and arms control. Portions of it serve as excellent roundups of current US-USSR treaties, historical confrontations between the two, the doctrine of flexible response and its history, and the battlefield doctrines of NATO and the USSR. It even provides a concise definition of the term doctrine: "codified sense held in common." Overall, NATO Strategy and Nuclear Defense is a well-done analysis of one of the most pressing yet poorly understood aspects of national strategy."-Airpower Journal

Author Bio

CARL H. AMME is a retired Naval Captain, a former senior operations analyst at SRI International, and a recent Visiting Scholar at the Hoover Institution.