CONFIDENTIAL,
inescapable defence obligations. This role is sustained by nuclear forces...".
Paragraph 17:
The emphasis on NATO's role to deter a major external threat needs to be qualified by an acknowledgement - as in paragraph 2- that this is not foreseeable. The last sentence, on reconstitution, is unclear.
Amend to read "
...
through membership of an alliance, although at present no such threat is foreseeable. This is discharged
remains to deter any re-emergence in the long-term of a major threat to the Alliance. If deterrence failed, these forces would provide the basis for
reconstituting forces, over time, to fight a major conflict."
Paragraph 18:
The paragraph should give a clearer picture of the risks of instability.
Amend to read " wider peace and stability. In the post-Cold War Europe, there are real risks of long-suppressed tensions and grievances provoking instability, as we have seen from the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. There is also a risk of crises and conflicts developing elsewhere in the world. Given the UN's increasingly active role in crisis management; the decision that NATO may take part in peacekeeping operations under UN or CSCE auspices; United Kingdom's wide range of historical links and strategic interests throughout the world, there are likely to be increasing calls on British forces."
and the
Paragraph 19: This thought will not necessarily be easily comprehensible to the layman, and needs clearer explanation. What, for instance, do the words "considerable and fundamental" really mean?
Paragraph 20: Paragraph 20 seems to cut across the argument in paragraphs 9-14 that Options has been overtaken, at least in part, by recent events. Delete.
Paragraphs 24-26: We doubt whether the inclusion of this material in SDE 93 is really necessary. Paragraph 26 strikes us as particularly inappropriate for a public document.
Paragraph 29: Amend second sentence to read:
participate fully in WEU activity."
Paragraph 31: Amend first sentence to read "the Conventional Armed forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty
Paragraph 33: Amend to read "...will come into force 60 days after twenty states party So far, 5 have ratified..."
NM/lett0511sde
CONFIDENTIAL
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