In the quarter century after 1989, the Relationship gradually lost its strategic relevance – although its cultural and transnational dimensions remained. The reason stems from the breakdown of the bipolar international order – Soviet Russia and its Eastern European empire had collapsed by 1991. American leaders lacked understanding of the nature of transitions from one international order to another since at least the mid-seventeenth century – that America had become just another Great Power, admittedly potent, in a new multi-Power order. Margaret Thatcher established a cordial working relationship with Bush after he took office. But in foreign policy, George H. W. Bush and Thatcher agreed about Russia and Western security. Bush, Baker, and Scowcroft, conversely, sought not only German union; they wanted a united Germany committed to NATO. Towards this end, they would need to allay Russian fears and overcome allied misgivings about greater Germany.