West European threat assessment: An instrument of assertiveness?

This chapter focuses on a prerequisite on a joint West European threat assessment. It deals with the motives and needs for a specific West European assessment capacity. The chapter outlines the concept of an eventual West European “challenge assessment unit,” analyzes the feasibility of establishing such a unit, and speculates on the effects and consequences it might have on the Western security structure. At present a West European “challenge assessment unit” will certainly not disturb the Western security landscape, nor will it resolve overnight the problem of an underdeveloped common West European identity in security. The conclusion is that a genuine West European evaluation is a key factor to a better representation of West European interests in transatlantic as well as East-West relations. There are many prominent examples for diverging transatlantic assessments, one of them concerns the quality of the WP army and North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s sustainability in case of a conventional Soviet attack.