NATO's Conventional Defenses (review)

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS 207 5. What economic opportunities and constraints assist or impede development , and what are the political ramifications? Steven Sallie's well-conceived empirical analysis concludes that the conventional approach to growth— economic openness to international trade— is highly and consistently correlated with political repression. Other alternatives, such as borrowing from outside lenders, may be appropriate short-term responses but not long-term answers, according to Sheik Ali. Robert Clute argues that regional integration policies such as those pursued by the Southern African states represent a viable option, but not without certain costs. Finally, external economic constraints, such as American economic sanctions against Nicaragua, can prevent successful economic development and political stabilization in certain circumstances. The main shortcoming of this volume is the lack of a clear, unifying thread linking the widely disparate topics. Instead of a more comprehensive view, the book is more a series of 'snapshots' that have little thematic congruity, making it incumbent on the reader to sift through concepts and facts to infer broader themes. Also, several important aspects of life in the Third World are left unaddressed . The book fails to include sufficient analysis of East Asia, where the most promising experiments in overcoming underdevelopment have occurred. A chapter on Thailand or the Philippines would have given the work a broader and more balanced touch. Finally, the book does not deal effectively with war, an overriding issue that affects all developing regimes. All too often the best conceived development strategies fail because of endemic conflict and political strife. Despite these omissions, Third World at the Crossroads captures the complexity of the crisis confronting the developing world and works toward an explanation of how it might be solved. Sheik Ali highlights the positive theme that "each nation has its own genius and destiny to fulfill." Yet this cannot accomplished in a vacuum. If development is to succeed, it must be the result of a synthesis of traditional ways and modern advancement, and of external help and internal initiative. Developing countries must come up with realistic and pragmatic answers to the many social, economic, cultural and religious problems they face. As Sheik Ali concludes, "Years of toil and perseverance, of constraint and privation, lie ahead of them. The problems of poverty, hunger , disease, and illiteracy cannot be solved by the magic wand of freedom alone." NATO's Conventional Defenses. By StephenJ. Flanagan. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Publishing Company for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1988. 161 pp. Reviewed by Thomas Halverson, M.Phil. Candidate, Department of War Studies, King's College, London. After languishing as an orphan to nuclear arms control for the past twenty years, more favorable international conditions and a change in arms control priorities by the Bush administration have pushed conventional arms control to higher status on the arms control agenda. Compared to the Mutual and Balanced Force 208 SAIS REVIEW Reduction negotiations, which moved at a glacial pace for 14 unsuccessful years, changes in the Warsaw Pact and progress at the new Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) negotiations are moving at a dizzying pace. Interested observers of CFE issues would do well to consult Stephen J. Flanagan's guide to past and present NATO policy issues. Flanagan's book, published before the author became director of Conventional Force Issues on the Policy Planning Staff of the Department of State, examines a plethora of official and unofficial proposals for improving NATO's conventional defenses that have surfaced in the 1980s. The section on shortrange arms control deserves careful reading for its insights into the author's frame of reference on NATO's CFE negotiations. Most of the book analyzes the impact of new weapons technologies, military tactics, French and Spanish roles in NATO, and national specialization in roles and missions as they apply to NATO's conventional defense objectives. Understanding the effect of these issues on NATO's conventional military posture is fundamental to putting the political , economic and military pressures of the CFE negotiations in context. Combined research, development, and procurement for expensive weapons systems has long been a goal of NATO planners. Flanagan outlines recent NATO armaments cooperation plans, including NATO's Conventional Defense Improvement (CDI) plan which set out...