Euromissiles:
the nuclear weapons that nearly destroyed nato

In the Cold War conflict that pitted nuclear superpowers against one another, Europe was the principal battleground. Washington and Moscow had troops on the ground and missiles in the fields of their respective allies, the NATO nations and the states of the Warsaw Pact. Euromissiles—intermediate-range nuclear weapons to be used exclusively in the regional theater of war—highlighted how the peoples of Europe were dangerously placed between hammer and anvil. That made European leaders uncomfortable and pushed fearful masses into the streets demanding peace in their time.

At the center of the story is NATO. Colbourn highlights the weakness of the alliance seen by many as the most effective bulwark against Soviet aggression. Divided among themselves and uncertain about the depth of US support, the member states were riven by the missile issue. This strategic crisis was, as much as any summit meeting between US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, the hinge on which the Cold War turned.

Euromissiles is a history of diplomacy and alliances, social movements and strategy, nuclear weapons and nagging fears, and politics. To tell that history, Colbourn takes a long view of the strategic crisis—from the emerging dilemmas of allied defense in the early 1950s through the aftermath of the INF Treaty thirty-five years later. The result is a dramatic and sweeping tale that changes the way we think about the Cold War and its culmination.

Finalist for the 2023 Center for Presidential History Book Prize.
Recommended in the European Council on Foreign Relations’ 2023 Summer Entertainment List

Praise for euromissiles

Written in a rhythmic, digestible style, and effortlessly ducking back and forth in time amidst the complexity, she has written one of those rare books: a robust history that will stand as a reference book and also an accessible drama for us normal readers. A chapter called “The Year of the Missile” is as riveting as a thriller. Euromissiles is a triumph. — Andres Kabel

With its impressive presentation of a complex and many-layered story, judicious research, and accessible style, Colbourn has produced what is likely to become the standard one-volume work on the Euromissiles crisis. — Matthew Jones

Susan Colbourn’s book on Euromissiles is an outstanding achievement. This first comprehensive historical monograph on the Euromissile crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s draws from a uniquely broad range of archival materials, investigates the nuclear arms race against the backdrop of NATO’s strategy debates and the transformations in Europe’s Cold War security system, and shines new light on the nitty-gritty of arms control and its relevance for the end of the Cold War. — Stephan Kieninger

more on Euromissiles

Adam Tooze featured the opening of Euromissiles — a 1984 debate showdown between Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and the British Marxist historian and peace campaigner E.P. Thompson – in Chartbook.

See The Page 99 Test for Euromissiles.

MIT Security Studies Program, November 2, 2022