ABSTRACT

The states of Europe are faced with the formidable challenge of reestablishing a regional system to manage inter-state relations for the continent as a whole. Superpower hegemony is at an end. The new system is taking shape in an environment of considerable turbulence because of the collapse of communism in Eastern/Central Europe. The future shape of the Soviet Union is far from clear, as the decline from empire continues and as the Union itself disintegrates. Although the ‘Iron Curtain’ is no more, the legacy of forty-five years of communist rule and Soviet domination engenders a marked contrast between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, a contrast that has its roots in preWorld War II Europe. Western Europe is characterized by integration, high levels of material well-being and political stability, whereas the states of the former Eastern bloc are characterized by political turbulence, the destruction of civil society by communism, economic stagnation, an outmoded industrial structure, pollution and a revival of ethnic and nationalist tensions. The concept of a ‘common European home’ from the Atlantic to the Urals may prove to be illusory. Institutional arrangements to manage inter-state relations in the new Europe are likely to emerge in a piecemeal fashion, much like the aftermath of World War II.