ABSTRACT
The total collapse of Central and East European political structures in 1945 and their ensuing reconstruction along completely different lines represented a sharp break with the past. This has rendered historical comparison and analysis almost impossible. This chapter examines recent events without the perspective that history traditionally affords. The dynamics of the relationship between the systems have been the principal factor shaping the character of Western policies toward the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The Promethean struggle, from 1945 onward, over the future of Germany has shaped through usage the Eastern and the Western security systems in Europe, defined a language and code of conduct for the two systems, and established the limits of the politically possible. The logic of the security order that has been created in Europe is that war is ruled out as a mechanism of change.
