In Chapter I there is an examination of the historical impact of strategic defences on European-American relations. Chapter II will seek to identify security interests for the Federal Republic of Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Chapter III will analyse the nature of the American strategic debate regarding strategic defences in the 1990s. The fourth and final Chapter will then directly address the impact of the various alternative future outcomes of the American strategic defence debate on Western European security interests in the 1990s. The paper will outline possible forms which that European-American disource might take place, and suggest direct responses that the Western Europeans may be able to make in these differing circumstances.

Cover title. "Spring 1989." Adelphi Paper 238.

Introduction--I. Past debates over strategic defences--II. West European security interests--III. The strategic debate in the United States--IV. Western Europe and the future directions of the American strategic defence debate--Conclusions.