This book presents a collection of contributions to a workshop on Long-teY’fr/ Development of NATO’s Conventional Forrward Defense to which the GERMAN STRATEGY FORUM (DSF* had invited some 50 systems analysts and
defense experts of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of Germany and the SHAPE Technical Centre. Held in Bonn from 2 to 4 December 1984, this workshop was to provide a forum for the dis­ cussion, at a
non-political expert level and in the light of available analysis results, of proposals for the improvement of NATO’s conventional defense capabilities. In addition, it aimed at arriving at some recommenda­ tions as to which
of these proposals deserve to be studied further and what methodological deficiencies must be alleviated and information gaps closed for an adequate assessment. The idea to organize this workshop has been discussed ever since
1980 with several defense systems analysts in the US and the UK who shared the opinion that, with a view to the immense global build-up of the Soviet threat on one hand and the stringency of defense resources in most NATO
countries on the other, there is no reason that could permit us to dismiss any proposal promising improvement without careful study.