ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the historical developments that have shaped European understandings of security from the end of the Second World War to 1999. While, for most of Europe, the period post 1989 has been one of rapid change followed by comparative peace and stability, it is important to recognise that there are still unresolved conflicts and that the institutional settlements that emerged created winners and losers, insiders and outsiders. The Cold War shaped the European security institutions of the twenty-first century, but also froze the multiple nationalist and ethnic tensions that had been such a feature of European security problems across the centuries. A series of summits held by the allies from 1943–1945 had set some parameters for the post-war Europe. The legacy of the Cold War still matters and, indeed, as antagonism between Russia and the West has worsened, some believe that its structures and practices remain relevant.
