Balancing Mutual Force Reductions

Abstract

THE problem of reducing conventional forces in the European setting in a balanced manner as between the forces of the NATO and Warsaw Pact countries is of some political interest. Here I set out to provide logical baselines, using a mathematical approach but without indulging in massive computation, for deciding when, and in what sense, small force reductions involving two opposing parties might be said to be balanced. Three different approaches to the question are made, each based on essentially different but plausible idealizations of what balanced reductions in military strength may mean, or may be taken to mean by the parties concerned.