ABSTRACT
The overwhelming majority of the chapters in this book plot the course of the end of the Cold War and the transition in the East-West relationship from conflict escalation to conflict transformation, culminating with the extraordinary events of 1989 and 1991-the first of which saw the effective collapse of Soviet power in Eastern Europe, and the second of which witnessed the implosion of the USSR itself. This is a story that has been told several times before, and will no doubt be told several times again as different scholars try to plant their own theoretical and intellectual flag on this particular patch of important historical territory.1 The discussion thus far has certainly been a fascinating one, which has been enriched by the active intellectual role played in it by many of the key actors who happened to be present at disintegration.2 It is also a debate without end which has already divided writers and scholars almost as much as that other great story concerning the beginning of the conflict in the months and years following World War II. It would be pointless here to try to sum up this discussion. But it is at least worth mentioning that what happened between 1989 and 1991 has given rise to at least half a dozen theories about its probable causes, precipitated something of a crisis in the discipline of international relations (not to mention the now defunct subject of Sovietology), given Cold War studies a major shot in the arm, and forced quite a few scholars to wonder about the more general claims of the social sciences, given the latter’s abysmal record in actually predicting what happened.3 Not bad for an event which only a few years prior to its actual occurrence had been deemed to be most unlikely, and a decade earlier almost inconceivable!4
