ABSTRACT
Post-Communist eastern Europe has been subject to both centrifugal and centripetal pressures. While the prospects for inter-state and sub-state conflicts have markedly increased in some parts of the region, new opportunities have also emerged for furthering international cooperation in various realms. The development of cooperative economic arrangements between the east European states has been influenced by several critical events. Several bilateral economic agreements were signed between the east European and Soviet republican governments, even before the failed coup severed most of the Union bonds. In assessing the restructuring of security networks in eastern Europe, it is important to consider the changing military postures of each state following the dissolution of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, or Warsaw Pact. Romanian and Bulgarian leaders have also discussed regional security issues in the Balkans at both bilateral and multilateral levels. Bucharest has proposed creating a Central and East European Union patterned after the security-oriented West European Union.
