ABSTRACT

This book seeks to reassess the role of Europe in the end of the Cold War and the process of German unification.

Much of the existing literature on the end of the Cold War has focused primarily on the role of the superpowers and on that of the US in particular. This edited volume seeks to re-direct the focus towards the role of European actors and the importance of European processes, most notably that of integration. Written by leading experts in the field, and making use of newly available source material, the book explores "Europe" in all its various dimensions, bringing to the forefront of historical research previously neglected actors and processes. These include key European nations, endemic evolutions in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, European integration, and the pan-European process. The volume serves therefore to rediscover the transformation of 1989-90 as a European event, deeply influenced by European actors, and of great significance for the subsequent evolution of the continent.

chapter |11 pages

Who won the Cold War in Europe?

A historiographical overview

part |28 pages

Perestroika and its effects revisited

chapter |13 pages

In the name of Europe

Soviet withdrawal from Eastern Europe

part |44 pages

Developments in Eastern Europe

chapter |13 pages

Rumblings in Eastern Europe

Western pressure on Poland's moves towards democratic transformation

chapter |14 pages

The Catholic Church and the Cold War's end in Europe

Vatican Ostpolitik and Pope John Paul II, 1985–1989

part |40 pages

German unification between the superpowers

chapter |12 pages

In the name of Europe's future

Soviet, French and British qualms about Kohl's rush to German unification

part |41 pages

German unification

chapter |13 pages

German unification and European integration are but two sides of one coin

The FRG, Europe, and the diplomacy of German unification

chapter |13 pages

A naturally supportive environment?

The European institutions and German unification

part |28 pages

Soviet disintegration and the building of a new Europe

chapter |13 pages

From the common European home to European confederation

François Mitterrand and Mikhail Gorbachev in search of the road to a greater Europe

chapter |13 pages

International reactions to Soviet disintegration

The case of the Baltic states 1

part |38 pages

Competing visions in the Euro-Atlantic area