US military strategy and the Cold War endgame

the long version

The transition from the end of the Cold War to a new world order is both promising and perilous. The US and its NATO allies were caught largely unprepared by the rapid collapse of the Warsaw Pact, the sudden demise of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany - events that redrew the map of East Central Europe and shifted US security concerns eastward in Eurasia. They also redefined security as a condition based more on the prevention or containment of regional and civic conflicts, compared with the Cold War expectations of global or nuclear war. The next century is certain to strain US and NATO strategy considerably, if indeed NATO survives at all. A new group of interstate institutions for European security will compete for the right to claim pre-eminence in security issues. International peace-keeping and peace enforcement, whether United Nations-directed or regionally sponsored, will also challenge traditional definitions or military missions. Changes will also occur in the role of nuclear weapons in military strategy. US and Russian strategic nuclear forces will be drastically reduced, and both states will take other steps to dampen the nuclear arms race. The antagonists of the Cold War will be the collaborators of the next century in seeking to stabilize conflicts inside and outside Europe.