Diminishing the Nuclear Threat. NATO's Defence and New Technology, Lnd. 1984. 63 p.
In 1980, the British Atlantic Committee (BAC) invited its president, Marshal of the Royal Air Force of England Lord Cameron, to lead a special group to develop a new "global strategy" for NATO. The group included military personnel who held the highest positions in NATO, permanent representatives of the United Kingdom in this organization, serving from its staff. In February 1984, a document was published on behalf of the LHC, which represents the outcome of this work.
It is noteworthy that among the reasons for the need to review the problems facing NATO, the authors cite the unprecedented rise of the mass anti-war movement, as well as the fact that some aspects of the policy of this aggressive bloc cause doubts and disputes even among its supporters. With this in mind, the authors set themselves two tasks: to outline a NATO course that would correspond to the "new military technology" and at the same time contribute to "maintaining the prestige of NATO in the world" (p.5), i.e. would be acceptable to British public opinion and at the same time influence its formation.
The rapid development of science and technology in recent years requires, according to the authors, to re-examine and rethink the main foreign policy and military goals of the West, which, in their words, consist in "establishing peace by constantly moving towards a new world order" (p. 9). Stating that such an order does not yet exist in the world, the authors believe for NATO, it is necessary to have such "deterrents" that would make it "clear to any alleged aggressor that the price to be paid for aggression will be prohibitively high "(ibid.). Previously, this idea, the authors note, was expressed by the doctrine of "flexible response", but in the new conditions, from their point of view, it no longer meets this goal. It is the new technology that makes it possible, according to the LHC, to provide effective "deter ...
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