This book, first published in 1987, examines the defence forces of Western Europe and assesses Europe’s capacity to defend itself as the 1980s saw the Cold War balance of power shift towards the Soviet Union. Soviet forces were greatly superior to NATO’s in terms of tanks, artillery and combat divisions, and this book analyses the NATO response and capabilities.

This is a collection of the 13 essays making up the proceedings of the 2nd international working conference on violence and non-violent action in industrialized Societies held in Brussels on the March 24-26th, 1976.

People still think of the Cold War as a simple two-sided conflict, a kind of gigantic arm wrestle on a global scale," writes Marc Trachtenberg, "but this view fails to grasp the essence of what was really going on." America and Russia were both willing to live with the status quo in Europe. What then could have generated the kind of conflict that might have led to a nuclear holocaust? This is the great puzzle of the Cold War, and in this book, the product of nearly twenty years of work, Trachtenberg tries to solve it. The answer, he says, has to do with the German question, especially with the German nuclear question. These issues lay at the heart of the Cold War, and a relatively stable peace took shape only when they were resolved. The book develops this argument by telling a story--a complex story involving many issues of detail, but focusing always on the central question of how a stable international system came into being during the Cold War period. A Constructed Peace will be of interest not just to students of the Cold War, but to people concerned with the problem of war and peace, and in particular with the question of how a stable international order can be constructed, even in our own day.

Considers sense of Senate resolution against stationing of U.S. ground forces in Europe without a congressionally authorized policy. Focuses on U.S. role in NATO.