ABSTRACT
The dramatic political change in Europe, the unification of Germany, the dissolution of the Soviet sphere of domination in Eastern Europe and the USSR, as well as the emerging reunification of the old continent have changed fundamentally the security context in and outside of Europe. The East-West conflict has come to an end in the peaceful revolutions of 1989 and 1990. The Conflict Prevention Center was tasked to support the Council in the reduction of the danger of conflicts. Since early 1991, the 1990 Vienna Agreement on Confidence and Security Building Measures has been implemented. For the Soviet leadership both the permanent adherence of a united Germany to the nonproliferation treaty and significant German troop reductions were a precondition for accepting its full NATO membership. With the disappearance of the East-West conflict, the risk of a global nuclear war has practically disappeared.
