cover image Preventing World War III: A Realistic Grand Strategy

Preventing World War III: A Realistic Grand Strategy

David M. Abshire. HarperCollins Publishers, $19.95 (331pp) ISBN 978-0-06-015986-3

Abshire, former ambassador to NATO and special counsellor to President Reagan, offers a comprehensive grand strategy aimed at minimizing the uncertainty, division and misperception that could lead to a third world war. His broad array of proposals includes encouraging global stability by ensuring economic growth through an open and free trading system, restoring balance and flexibility to U.S. deterrent strategy, and a plan for making a short-warning Soviet blitzkrieg attack on NATO ``obsolete.'' A self-described cheerleader for NATO, Abshire maintains that conventional forces will be the decisive element in the European power balance in the 1990s. The president should elevate his NATO ambassador to cabinet rank, he urges; his emphasis throughout is on ``less Americanization and more on partnership in decisionmaking.'' (Jan.)