Crisis management and crisis prevention

This paper reports that many proposals have come forth to ease the tension between East and West. Some focus on arms developments, others take up diplomatic issues. In addition, some have raised the question of crisis management and crisis prevention. Can crises be prevented even before they have taken place? The Palme Commission on Disarmament and Security suggested, in its 1982 report, ways of restraining superpower involvement in Third World conflicts. Such conflicts, it was argued, could escalate and ultimately result in nuclear confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. Certainly, the commission also paid attention to conflicts over issues in Europe and to problems in Eastern or in Western Europe. However, the commission raised a question that lately has received increasing attention: the dangers of superpower confrontation over Third World issues. In his statement to the United Nations on 24 October 1985, President Regan pointed to the need for settling regional conflicts as they play a large role in building suspicions and tensions. Regan's initiative explicitly concerned Afghanistan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Angola and Nicaragua. It included negotiations with the Soviet Union over Afghanistan, and, at a later stage, also over other issues. The goal, he the, was not to force a settlement on the parties. The initiative concerned issues that have for the American public, justified armaments and reduced Soviet credibility