ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on political developments and on developments in Europe itself, particularly those which affect the security agenda. It discusses the transformation of East-West relations in both its positive and its negative dimensions. The chapter begins with the more promising aspects of the new international order, including the process of, and further prospects for, demilitarization. The cumulation of political events between 1989 and 1991 in Eastern Europe, in the Soviet Union, and in East-West relations has led to a radical transformation of the international system and this is even before the full consequences of those events have become apparent. Until the advent of the East-West conflict, European history of the nineteenth and twentieth century was decisively marked by nationalism and national movements. During the East-West conflict the main security issues were those involving East and West. They were so dramatic and overpowering that all other security issues paled in comparison.
