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The attitudes and actions of the Israeli and Palestinian rejectionists is hampering peace and security initiatives in the Middle East. Israeli rejectionists comprise religious zealots and secular nationalists who wish to keep the nation under Jewish control. The rejectionists functionally evolved by lobbying within the Likud, and through illegal settlements and terrorism. The Israeli-Palestinian interaction also encourages rejectionism. Educating the Israeli and Palestanian public about the dangers of rejectionism are essential for promoting peace and stability in the Middle East.

The U.S.-Soviet strategic relationship is being transformed by the revolutionary in Europe--culminating in the end of the Cold War--and by dynamics internal to the Soviet Union. The relationship is, at present, asymmetrical: with the United States at the apex of its global influex and the USSR at its nadir, the superpowers remain equal only in their enduring capability to destroy each other. The future, however, holds more peril than promise. First, the USSR seeks to fundamentally redefine what its armed forces will look like and how they will be prepared to fight. This potential for a long-term surge in Soviet combat effectiveness must be factored into the U.S. national security calculus; now is not too soon to identify and pursue the emerging technologies upon which the U.S. trans-century agenda should be anchored. Second, the breakdown of central authority in the Soviet Union threatens to sweep away the stability and predictability that have, hitherto, defined the superpower relationship. Insofar as empires do not fade away peacefully, the disintegration of a nuclear-armed Soviet Union might emerge as the most dangerous threat to U.S. security.

At the very time that perception of some Western analysts is moving toward the view that the Soviets believe war could be kept below the nuclear level, Soviet military writings are emphasizing the essential and integral use of nuclear weapons in theater warfare. While recent in origin, this emerging trend has been internally consistent, has surfaced in a diversity of Soviet media, has received support from high‐level Soviet military officials, and has as yet gone unchallenged from potential Soviet advocates of a conventional variant. The centerpiece of the current literature is Colonel F. D. Sverd‐lov's monograph Tactical Maneuver, which Soviet military leaders assert surveys “new tactical premises” and reflects “the newest achievements of Soviet military art.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]