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How to draw a line under the Cold War, by Sergei Karaganov (Summer 2009)
Faced with the daunting new challenges of the global economic crisis, the time has come for the West to
re-think its relations with Russia, says Sergei Karaganov. He sets out his plan for an ambitious new collective security agreement
This year offers a seemingly magical combination of anniversaries of events that shaped the world we live in. The main one, of course, is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, whose consequence was the death of “real socialism”, and the amazing historical phenomenon of complete reconciliation between Russians and Germans. Yet it may be that the end of confrontation in Europe will prove only temporary. The old divisions may be re-emerging, even though in a different form, even though the Cold War in Europe was declared to be over, the truth is that it actually never finished.
When the Soviet Union voluntarily withdrew from Central and Eastern Europe, and gave a green light to the reunification of Germany, we Russians believed that the NATO alliance would not be extended to those countries and territories from which we had withdrawn. Our hope was for unification with Europe in a “common European home” and the creation of a “united and free Europe”. And our hopes were not just based on starry-eyed self-deception; the leaders of the U.S. and of Germany had promised Gorbachev the non-enlargement of NATO.
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PS : This paper has been globally published by europesworld.org :
This year offers a seemingly magical combination of anniversaries of events that shaped the world we live in. The main one, of course, is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, whose consequence was the death of “real socialism”, and the amazing historical phenomenon of complete reconciliation between Russians and Germans. Yet it may be that the end of confrontation in Europe will prove only temporary. The old divisions may be re-emerging, even though in a different form, even though the Cold War in Europe was declared to be over, the truth is that it actually never finished.
When the Soviet Union voluntarily withdrew from Central and Eastern Europe, and gave a green light to the reunification of Germany, we Russians believed that the NATO alliance would not be extended to those countries and territories from which we had withdrawn. Our hope was for unification with Europe in a “common European home” and the creation of a “united and free Europe”. And our hopes were not just based on starry-eyed self-deception; the leaders of the U.S. and of Germany had promised Gorbachev the non-enlargement of NATO.
... /...
PS : This paper has been globally published by europesworld.org :