Recasting European security

Abstract

This article considers the interaction of NATO and the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty as two principal tools for providing post‐Cold War European security. The article suggests that the conventional wisdom, which typically envisions CFE adaptation as a bill‐payer to placate the Russians over NATO enlargement is wrong because CFE has very little flexibility to perform this role. Rather, it is NATO modernization which must account for the larger share of change in European security. Finally, the article suggests a symbiotic relationship between NATO and CFE in which CFE shapes the environment and limits the size of likely conflicts to dimensions that NATO can handle, and NATO provides the military response necessary to deal with the trouble.