Defining Détente: NATO's Struggle for Identity, 1967-1984

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) defined détente as one of its central tasks with the Harmel Report of December 1967, alongside the Alliance’s traditional mission of defending the West. After a series of historic improvements in the early 1970s, however, détente’s fortunes faded. East-West relations deteriorated over the second half of the 1970s and into the 1980s, leading many to dub the period a “Second Cold War.” What, then, did this mean for the Atlantic Alliance and the double philosophy of détente and defense staked out in the Harmel Report? Defining Détente: NATO’s Struggle for Identity, 1967-1984 explores détente’s contested nature and its various meanings for policy-makers and publics in the United States, Canada, and across Western Europe. Détente was an ongoing source of tension in transatlantic relations, but neither allied disagreements nor the marked deterioration of East-West relations changed the Alliance’s overall strategy. Détente and defense remained vital to NATO’s posture for the remainder of the Cold War and well into the post–Cold War era.

Department dc:contributor.department

History

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Colbourn, Susan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Bothwell, Robert

• Cold War
• détente
• NATO
• transatlantic relations

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/102872

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/102872