Book Reviews : Campaigns against Western Defence: NATO's Adversaries and Critics, by Clive Rose (RUSI Defence Studies Series) Macmillan, London 1985, £25.00
| Author | James Cable |
| DOI | 10.1177/004711788500800411 |
| Published date | 01 October 1985 |
| Date | 01 October 1985 |
416
Yes,
there
is
a
responsibility
on
the
international
community
but
there
is
also
a
primary
responsibility
on
our
country
to
follow
up
and
complete
and
build
upon
the
policies
of
decolonisation
and
freedom
in
which
we
have
given
a
lead
to
the
world.
Lord
Caradon
European
Foreign
Policy-making
and
the
Arab-Israeli
Conflict
,
David
Allen
and
Alfred
Pijpers
(Eds),
Martinus
Nijhoff,
The
Hague,
1984.
The
Middle
East
has
been
central
to
the
development
of
European
Political
Cooperation
(EPC),
and
EPC
has
been
marginal
in
the
international
politics
of the
Middle
East.
In
this
imbalance
lies
both
the
interest
and
the
problem
of
this
book,
which
arises
out
of
a
conference
held
at
the
Europa
Institute
in
Amsterdam
in
1983.
The
efforts
of
European
Community
members
since
1970
to
develop
common
foreign
policy
positions
have
tended
to
focus
on
the
Middle
East,
where
vital
interests
are
at
stake
but
where
a
man’s
reach
always
exceeds
his
grasp.
This
has
attracted
savage
criticism in
direct
proportion
to
the
extent
of
European
intervention,
and
from
all
sides
of
the
dispute.
Yet
despite
the
contempt
in
which
the
Venice
Declaration
was
held
by
both
Israel
and
the
PLO,
the
Community
has
had
to
stick
to
its
guns
(so
to
speak)
because
the
credibility
and
momentum
of EPC
itself
has
been
at
stake.
It
thus
becomes
a
fascinating
exercise
in
policy
analysis,
to
trace
the
interplay
between
the
internal
dynamics
of
European
foreign
policy
co-ordination
on
the
one
hand,
and
the
politics
of
Middle
Eastern
diplomacy
on
the
other.
As
the
editors
rightly
stress
in
their
pithy
conclusions,
the
Europeans
have
by
no
means
come
out
of
their
venture
into
the
big
league
as
badly
as
some
choose
to
think.
From
the
point
of
view
of
EPC,
a
position
has
been
steadily
refined
and
largely
adhered
to
over
more
than
a
decade,
and
it
is
a
position
of
impeccable
rationality.
That
the
major
parties
to
the
dispute
have
shown
every
indication
of
despising
liberal
rationality
is
hardly
a
reason
for
abandoning
one’s
policy
(especially
as
the
alternatives
are
even
less
likely
to
succeed),
and
in
fact
the
Community
can
claim
to
have
had
some
slight
but
positive
impact
on
both
the
United
States
and
the
PLO.
Israel,
it
is
true,
has
been
confirmed
in
its
attitudes
by
its
perception
of
European
interference
and
’appeasement’.
All
this
is
brought
out
well
enough
in
Allen
and
Pijpers’ useful
volume,
which
is
divided
into
two
halves:
nine
short
studies
of
the
individual
European
states’
policies
towards
the
Arab-Israel
conflict
(Luxembourg
is
excluded),
followed
by
five
chapters
on
shared
problems,
such
as
relations
with
the
USA,
participation
in
the
Sinai
peacekeeping
force,
the
likely
impact
of
further
enlargement,
and
(most
strikingly)
Israeli
and
Arab
perspectives
on
Europe’s
diplomatic
performance.
The
structure
of
the
book
makes
for
a
comprehensive
treatment,
although
inevitably
there
is
a
good
deal
of
repetition
of
basic
data,
while
the
strongly-held
political
positions
held
by
Greilsammer
and
Weiler
on
one
side,
and
Khader
on
the
other,
sit
rather
uneasily
with
the
detailed
analyses
which
they
also
attempt.
Not
all
the
country
studies
have
been
written
to
the
same
standard,
moreover,
and
only
those
on
Ireland
(Keatinge),
Britain
(Edwards),
Denmark
(Thune)
and
Greece
(Tsakoloyannis)
are
both
substantial
and
clear.
The
real
problem
with
this
book,
however,
as
indicated
at
the
outset,
is
that
it
is
devoted
to
a
major
area
of
international
relations
in
which
the
European
presence
is
largely
ethereal.
This
does
not
mean
the
volume
was
not
worth
publishing,
and
indeed
it
will
be
a
high
priority
for
every
student
of
European
foreign
policy-
making.
But
it
does
make
for
a
curiously
passive
tone.
The
thread
which
tends
to
run
through
the
various
contributions
is
essentially
the
view
that
European
diplomacy
in
the
Middle
East
has
been
ineffectual,
but
not
much
more
ineffectual
than
any
other
outsider’s
efforts.
This
is
true,
but
not
very
exciting.
London
School
of
Economics
Christopher
Hill
Campaigns
against
Western
Defence:
NATO’s
Adversaries
and
Critics,
by Clive
Rose
(RUSI
Defence
Studies
Series)
Macmillan,
London
1985,
£25.00.
Sir Clive
Rose
has
produced
a
comprehensive
account
of the
many
groups
and
organisations
in
Western
Europe
and
the
United
States
which
are
opposed
to
the
kind
of
collective
defence
effort
now
maintained
by
the
members
of
the
North
Atlantic
Alliance.
Some
are
prompted
by
pacifism,
others
by
more
frankly
political
motives.
Their
opposition
may
cover
all
and
any
preparations
to
employ
armed
force
or
it
may
be
directed
against
nuclear
weapons
or
against
particular
plans
for
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