Ralph Dietl Book order

NATO Europe is an underestimated factor in strategic arms control. NATO Europe was the nemesis of the SALT II process. Europe feared an early SALT ratification. The SALT process was artificially delayed in order to create a 'time window' for an INF deployment. NATO sought negotiation currency prior to the start of the planned SALT III negotiations. The NATO dual track decision killed the SALT II treaty. Superpower détente was the victim. The Second Cold War originated in Europe and not on the periphery. This multi-archival research monograph analyzes the penetration of US decision-making under the Carter Administration, the limitation of the influence of NATO Europe to non-central systems and the re-nationalization of US decision-making under the Reagan Administration. The latter paved the way to the arms control breakthrough of the mid-1980s.

Superpower détente during the Nixon-Ford Administration led to the formation of an East-West regime aimed at conflict control and systemic stability. 'Equal Security' was the proclaimed goal. By institutionalizing bipolarity, however, the bilateral US-SU Strategic Arms Limitation Talks actually threatened Western European security, for global security and Alliance security were ultimately incompatible. NATO Europe feared the emergence of a global directorate of the superpowers and became apprehensive that the US would be ready to abandon the cause of Europe and sacrifice European and German unity for the sake of a stable world order. In reaction, NATO Europe sought to shape the SALT process to ensure that equal security applied to all – the Soviet Union, the United States and the European Allies. The volume analyses the linkages between SALT, MBFR, NATO and the special Anglo-American nuclear relationship. It also explores how NATO Europe penetrated US decision-making and co-shaped the US SALT agenda and how Scoop Jackson Democrats and NATO Europe aligned to preserve Western block superiority, freezing the SALT II process. Based on recently declassified European archival material, the volume offers a fresh interpretation of and a 'new look' at SALT.