ABSTRACT
The turbulence of alliance relations and the uncertainties of the East-West conflict between 1949 and 1989 appear, in retrospect, to encompass a long period of continuity, certainty, and stability. The content and direction of German security policy were narrowly circumscribed by the Federal Republic’s membership in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and dependence upon the United States, and they were defined by the need to contain Soviet power in Europe. The redefinition of Germany security and the changed European state system have shaped and reshaped the role and promise of the existing institutions of European security. NATO, and the extended American nuclear deterrent, guaranteed German security in the post-war period, supported the German effort to achieve Western European political and economic integration, and was considered essential to the eventual unification of the two Germanys. The Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe promises the institutionalization of a pan-European peace order based upon the principle of collective security.
