ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses detente was a mixed competitive-collaborative relationship between global superpowers possessed of contrasting ideologies, political structures, assets, needs, and stages of international involvement. It was made possible by Soviet attainment of strategic parity, which led to a perceived mutual interest in arms control and confrontation avoidance. For detente to maintain its momentum as a process, given the numerous differences between the superpowers, it had to be buttressed by norms of restraint in the competitive relationship and norms of reciprocity in the collaborative. The early years of détente witnessed a series of bilateral agreements, geared toward controlling the arms race, controlling nuclear proliferation, defusing the Berlin issue, recognizing the division of Europe, expanding East-West trade, and collaborating in scientific, cultural, environmental, health, and related fields. Detente's early successes in defining reciprocity and reaching agreements may well be attributable to special features of the issues and regions in which those agreements were being forged.
