More cohesive, still divergent: Western Europe, the United States, and the madrid csce follow-up meeting

One of the key elements in the relationship between Western Europe and the United States has been the search for agreement on policy toward the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Since the early 1970s, the transatlantic debate on which political, economic, and military strategies the West should pursue has often turned sour, sometimes harsh, causing strains to the cohesion of the Alliance. In the early 1980s, reactions to the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and the imposition of martial law in Poland turned differences of opinion – natural or even healthy for an alliance of free states – into “moods of crisis.” This chapter analyzes the degree of transatlantic consensus on East-West relations and related policy through the lens of the Madrid Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) Follow-up Meeting, 1980-1983. After a brief report on the conference and its results, the analysis focuses on the common actions of the West and appraises the significant improvement in Western unity that occurred at Madrid. However, significant differences persisted between the two sides of the Atlantic as to the role of the CSCE in East-West relations, and the reasons for participation in the CSCE or the so-called Helsinki process. Those differences became increasingly evident and thorny after the imposition of martial law in Poland.