Key Influences on NATO States' National Security Negotiating Behavior

Abstract

The late 1980s was probably the golden age of East-West security/arms control negotiations. Treaty-producing talks, such as the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) negotiation between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, went right to the heart of issues of national survival and stature. Partly due to this importance, the negotiating behavior of individual West European states during this time was highly consistent and utilitarian. Powerful influences stemming from geography, historical commitments, economic competition, domestic instability, and political vision cross-walked directly to predictable state negotiating stances. Despite the murkiness of the nature of the New World Order, these and other emerging influences or factors seem to still lend coherence to a modified self-help framework for understanding national security interests and their negotiated pursuit.