That is thepeace dividend which we were looking for and, indeed, have gotten. It still remains a dangerous world. We have conflicts going on around theworld that are in danger of erupting into a major regional conflict affectingthe United States. More importantly, we have deterred a repetition of thatconflict, last October in Iraq. And we have deterred a new Korean War conflictwhen there was danger of that conflict occurring last June.
Deterrence also requires military forces.
The essence of deterrence ismilitary capability plus the political will to use it. I think it's noteworthy that with the ending of the Cold War, not only are all16 NATO nations decided that they should stay in NATO, but there are more thana dozen nations who have requested being accepted into NATO membership. Thisindicates, I think as clearly as anything, the importance of NATO in providinga security architecture for all of Europe. In your speech you mentioned earlier possibly bring this Alliance into thefuture. All ofthe nations who are participating in the Partnership for Peace areparticipating because they see real value in its role in extending the securityarchitecture to all of Europe, as well as training for peacekeepingoperations.