ABSTRACT
Three overriding factors determine the East-West conflict and are characteristic for its destructiveness and historic susceptibility to crisis. These are the geopolitical rivalry between the two leading powers and its effects on the whole system of international politics; the fundamental conflict of norms between two types of societies; and the fact that both conflicts take place in the age of nuclear technology and armament. Non-classical, that means without historic parallel and universally threatening is already the co-occurrence of geopolitical rivalry and nuclear technology without taking into account the fundamental opposition of norms between the two systems. The descriptive and explanatory representation of predominant perception patterns in the East-West conflict is burdened by two further methodic problems: The first methodic problem refers to the collective and non-collective subjects of perception. The second methodic problem refers to the temporal evolution of perceptions in different political periods.
