Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses socialist Bulgaria’s parallel political and economic relations with the FRG and Denmark: their (re)activation in the early 1960s, peak around the mid-1960s, deterioration in the aftermath of the crackdown on Prague Spring in 1968 and subsequent efforts at recovery. It deals with the Netherlands, the Benelux and the European Defence Community in the early 1950s. The book examines the Dutch social democrats’ attitudes and actions regarding the question of dictatorial Spain’s accession to NATO. It evaluates to what extent the analysis of smaller powers’ margins for manoeuvre has helped to challenge and nuance the view of the Cold War era as bipolar and dominated by the superpowers, provided a new prism for viewing the Cold War and contemporary European history at large, and contributed on a conceptual level to small state theory.