ABSTRACT

The evolution of a reunified but highly heterogeneous Europe, and of its relations with the two great powers that had divided and dominated it, continues to baffle commentators. The international system of neorealism is a system of states: self-propelled billiard balls endlessly attempting to knock one another out of the field of battle. The cost of the rehabilitation of former East Germany and the dimensions of the collapse of its economy have far exceeded the expectations of political leaders and serve as a warning of what would happen if the barriers that separate the European Community from the east central European states were suddenly to disappear. The United States, in 1989 and the first half of 1990, managed with great skill the withdrawal of Soviet power from eastern Europe and its effects. The other traditional transatlantic issue requires a drastic turnaround by Washington.