Seapower and Arms Control: Problems and Prospects

Abstract

Since 1975 there has been a steady deterioration in politicaldiplomatic and military-strategic relations between the East and the West. The euphoria of May 1972, when Presidents Nixon and Brezhnev signed the Statement of Principles of Detente, has long since dissipated in the West, as a result of Soviet involvement in Angola, Mozambique, and Ethiopia, the Soviet brigade in Cuba, and finally the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This pattern of interventionist behaviour has been coupled with a steady build-up in Soviet military capabilities especially in the European theatre with the Backfire bomber and the ss-20 intermediate-range ballistic missile (irbm). Western estimates suggest that up to 15 per cent of the Soviet gross national product is now allocated to defence. Indeed, the assessments of some Western analysts suggest that the West faces a 'window of vulnerability* until the mid-1980s when current military imbalances are expected to have been partially redressed.