The United States, Western Europe and Military Intervention Overseas

199 Pages·1988·17.636 MB·English

by  Christopher Coker (eds.)

THE UNITED STATES, WESTERN EUROPE
AND MILITARY INTERVENTION OVERSEAS
THE UNITED STATES,
WESTERN EUROPE
AND MILITARY
INTERVENTION
OVERSEAS
Edited by
Christopher Coker
Lecturerin International Relations
The London School01Economics
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-349-08408-1 ISBN 978-1-349-08406-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-08406-7
©Royal UnitedServicesInstitute, 1988
Softcoverreprintofthehardcover 1stedition 1988978-0-333-40554-3
Allrightsreserved.For information,write:
Scholarlyand ReferenceDivision,
St.Martin'sPress, Inc., 175Fifth Avenue, NewYork, NY10010
Firstpublishedinthe UnitedStatesofAmericain1988
ISBN978-0-312-01620-3
LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-PublicationData
The UnitedStates, WesternEurope,and military interventionoverseas
edited byChristopherCoker.
p. cm.
Bibliography:p.
Includes index.
ISBN978-0-312-01620-3:$30.00(est.)
1. Europe-Militaryrelations-Foreigncountries. 2. United
States-Militaryrelations-Foreigncountries. 3. North Atlantic
TreatyOrganization. 4. World politics-1985-1995. I. Coker,
Christopher.
UA646.U65 1988
327'.09182'1-dcl9
Contents
Notes on the Contributors vii
Inuoduction ix
1 East of Suez Revisited: The Strategie Reeoupling of
Western Europe and the Third World 1
Christopher Coker
2 The United States, Britain and Out-of-Area Problems 27
Phi!Williams
3 The NATO Allies and the Persian Gulf 37
Pau/ E. Gallis
4 NATO and the South Atlantie: A Case-Study inthe
Complexities of Out-of-Area Operations 61
Andrew Hurre//
5 Afriea asan Out-of-Area Problem for NATO 85
Doug/as T. Stuart
6 France, NATO and Regional Confliet inAfriea 115
lohn Chipman
7 Southern Afriea and the West in the Post-Nkomati Period:
The Case of Mozambique 139
Bernhard Weimer
Notes and References 166
Index 189
v
Notes on the Contributors
John Chipman isAssistant Oirector for Regional SecurityStudies at
the International Institute for Strategie Studies in London. He was
formerly Research Associateatthe AtlanticInstituteforInternational
Affairs in Paris. He is author of French Military Policy and African
Seeurity, Adelphi Paper 201(1985), from whichparts ofthis chapter
have been drawn. He has also edited books on NATO's southern
region and NATO institutions.
Christopher Coker is a Lecturer in International Relations at the
London School of Economics, and waspreviously aJunior Research
Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford. He isthe author of US Military
Power in the 1980s, The Future ofthe Atlantic Alliance, NATO, The
Warsaw PaetandAfriea and Construetive EngagementanditsCrities:
The United States and South Afriea 1968-84 as weil as numerous
articles on African politics and related issues.
PauI E. GalIis is an analyst in West European affairs at the
Congressional Research Service in Washington Oe. He received an
AB degreefrom OavidsonCollege inNorthCarolina. HeholdsanMA
and a PhO in history from Brown University, and hasstudied at the
University of Montpellier and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en
Seiences Sociales in France. He has worked at the State Oepartment
and as a speechwriter for a US Senator.
AndrewHurreII isAssistantProfessorofInternationalRelationsatthe
JohnsHopkinsUniversity'sSchoolofAdvancedInternationalStudies
in Bologna, Italy, and was formerly a Research Lecturer at Christ
Church,Oxford. He isthe authorofTheQuestforAutonomy:Brazil's
ChangingRoleintheInternationalSystem andvariousarticlesonLatin
American foreign policies.
Douglas T. Stuart isOirectorof the International StudiesProgram at
Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He is the author (with
vii
viii Notes on the Contributors
William T. Tow) of The Limits of Alliance: NATO Out of Area
Problems sinee 1949;editor of Politics and Seeurity in the Southern
RegionoftheAtlanticAllianceandSeeurity withinthePacificRim;and
co-editor of China, the Soviet Union and the West. His articles have
appearedinAtlantieQuarterly,ChinaQuarterly,InternationalAffairs,
NATO Review, ORBIS, Third World Affairs and World Today.
Bernhard Weimer has been a research staffmember at the Research
Institute for International Affairs (Africa Desk) of the Stiftung
Wissenschaft und Politik in Ebenhausen, West Germany, since 1980.
Educated at the Universities of Hamburg and Munich (Diplom
Volkswirt, 1973), he served as Research Fellow at the National
InstituteofDevelopmentResearchand Documentation,Universityof
Botswana (1975-8). His publications include monographs on
Botswanaand Mozambiqueasweilasarticleswhich haveappearedin
Atlantie Quarterly, AfrikaSpeetrum andInformationsdienstSüdliches
Afrika.
PhilWilliams isLecturer in International Relations at the University
of Southampton. He isauthor of Crisis Management and The Senate
and US Troops in Europe, co-author of Contemporary Strategy and
co-editorof TheCarterYears.He hasalsocontributedarticlesto many
journalsand isthe authorofaChathamHousepaperon US Troopsin
Europe.
Introduction
Thosefamiliarwith the AtlanticAlliance's40-yearhistorywillnot fail
to be impressed by the unremitting tension between the national
interestsofitsmembersand thoseofthe Allianceasawhole.Norwill
they have been able to ignore the endemic tension between interests
defined by treaty and those that fall outside the strict treaty area, in
regions beyond the Tropic ofCancer. Apart from the United States,
which has always seen itself as apower with interests outside the
Alliance, most ofits European members have remainedfor the most
part heavily dependent upon non-European lines of communication
and even more on non-European sources of fuel and non-fuel raw
materials,especiallyinSouthernAfricaand the MiddleEast.Whether
those interests are best defended by NATO or, indeed, whether
NATO isthe best forum in which to discuss theirdefence, has been a
persistent, and frequently divisive, theme in the Alliance since its
earliest years.
This book is not a study ofNATO out-of-area operations as such,
nor isit specifically about NATO.It represents a collection of essays
on avarietyofthemeswithinasingle analyticalframework:the extent
to which Western Europe, acting either on its own account or in
association with the United States, can intervene out-of-area and
contributetothedefenceofWesterninterestsdefinedsomewhatmore
broadly than at present in the AtlanticCharter.
Recentlytheperceptionsofinternationalinterestshaveextendedto
take account of West of Suez issues as weil, especially in the South
Atlantic,asubjecttreatedat lengthbyoneofthe sevenauthors. Allof
the contributors, whether writing of Africa or the Middle East,
whetherlookinghistoricallyat the subjectinorderto draw lessonsfor
thefuture,orfocussingon NATOasanorganisation,arepre-occupied
byaquestionthathascometo tax theimaginationandenergiesofboth
Europeans and Americans alike. No other subject, except for the
managementofdetente andarmscontrol,has provedmore divisive or
morefraughtwith difficultiesinthe enduringrelationshipbetweenthe
United States and its European allies.
ix
x Introduction
Despitethe unityofthe theme, notallthe authorsare agreedonthe
importance whichshould be attached to out-of-area problems or the
wayin which they are best tackled. None of them, however, would
disputethefactthatthe overallsubjectiseithereccentricor marginal.
Whether these essays contain valid interpretations or reasonable
hypotheses, they express the reactions and sentiments of a group of
writersconfrontingproblemscommonto allthe NATOcountriesbut
tothe WestEuropeansmost ofall.Itisthey whowillhave to-confront
theproblem ofadjustingto adiminishingrole inthe ThirdWorld,and
a diminishing US presence in Western Europe. How they do so will
depend on the importance they attach to non-European security
issues.To thisextent, the essays represent not theory but testimony,
testimony to a phenomenon which has yet to be lived through:
European military intervention in areas of the world from which the
Europeans have been absent for many years. Some of the authors
suggestthat thereare opportunitiesstillto be created,others,suchas
the Editor, that those opportunities are merely ways of escape from
the intractable dilemmas of the defence of Western Europe. The
reader,asalways,willdraw hisown conclusions.
In the making of such a work, a number of debts should be
acknowledged. Special thanks are due to Caroline Bolton and Brian
Holden Reid for their encouragement throughout and for the
production ofthe final manuscript. The book itself, ofcourse,would
not have been possible without the active cooperation of the authors
and the enthusiasm withwhichthey set to theirtask. The editor'stask
wasthe easiest one of all.
CHRISTOPHER COKER
1 East of Suez Revisited:
The Strategie
Recoupling of Western
Europe and the Third
World
CHRISTOPHER COKER
The retreat of European military power east of Suez has been a
persistent theme of international politics since the mid-1970s
captured on film of flags loweringceremonies inthe British colonies,
and peacekeeping operations in Aden and Cyprus, until the retreat
seemed to have comefull circle with the troublesin Ulsterafter 1969.
Forthe French the break was lessdramatic, but still real. In the early
1970s a spate of successful coups which swept French clients out of
Niger, the Central African Republicand finallyChadpromptedmany
to question whether the presence of French troops elsewhere served
any useful purpose. The evacuation of 2000 troops from Chad was
followed closely bythe evacuationof Frenchforces from Madagascar
(1973).By1974only onecompanyofmarinesremainedinGabon,and
about 1000troops in the whole of central Africa.
The retreat from east of Suez was marked by a clear faltering of
purpose. This was perhaps its most distinctive feature. There were
occasional Anglo-Dutch and Anglo-French naval exercises off the
Cape in 1972and 1974 respectively, and occasional manoeuvres like
the BerSatu exercise in the Far East in 1971 during which2500men
and 200 vehicles were airliftedfrom the United Kingdom inthe space
of ten days.Butfor all this investment ofmen and resourcesitserved
only to parade a commitment the Europeans preferred to observe in
the breach ratherthan the observance. Europe's retreatleftavacuum
of purpose rather than power; its military exercises represented
1