Abstract
The cold war ended in 1990. Germany unified, Eastern Europe democratized, and the Soviet Union quaked with political debate. After a year of remarkable events, leaders from the East and the West agreed that the features that had long defined their relations and, indeed, international relations as a whole, were decreasingly relevant. Since the late 1940s, the Western Alliance had sought to contain Soviet influence, moderate Soviet foreign policy, and, when possible, reform fundamental elements of the Soviet system. By 1990, the West seemed to have triumphed beyond its highest expectations. This was a time for celebration, but it was also a time for reflection. After all, the cold war had been relatively easy to manage. The adversary was obvious, and the conflicts imaginable. With forty years of experience, the U.S. knew what challenges to expect and, in general, how to address them. As the cold war came to an end, however, it was unclear how the conduct of foreign policy would change and what new difficulties the United States would face.
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1 Détente: Context and Theory
Kenneth Dyson, ed., European Détente: Case Studies of the Politics of East-West Relations, London: Frances Pinter, 1986, p. ix; The reference from the Süddeutsche Reichscorrespondenz is included in an article in The Times (London), 17 August 1908, p. 5.
See, for example, Luigi Albertini, The Origins of the War of 1914, Vol. 1, London: Oxford University Press, 1952;
Luigi Albertini, Cambridge History of the British Empire, Vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959;
R. J. Crampton, The Hollow Détente: Anglo-Getman Relations in the Balkans 1911–1914, London: George Prior, 1980;
Fritz Fischer, World Power or Decline, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1974;
Michael Howard, “Empire, Race and War in pre-1914 Britain,” History and Imagination: Essays in Honour of H. R. Trevor-Roper, London: Duckworth, 1981;
James Joll, The Origins of the First World War, London: Longman, 1984;
Paul M. Kennedy, The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism 1860–1914, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1980;
Paul M. Kennedy, Strategy and Diplomacy 1870–1945, London: Fontana, 1984;
Paul M. Kennedy and Anthony Nicholls, eds, Nationalist and Racialist Movements in Britain and Germany before 1914, London: Macmillan, 1977;
Sean M. Lynn-Jones, “Détente and Deterrence: Anglo-German Relations 1911–1914,” International Security, Summer 1986;
Zara Steiner, Britain and the Origins of the First World War, London: Macmillan, 1977;
E. L. Woodward, Great Britain and the German Navy, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1935.
Louisa Sue Hulett, Decade of Détente: Shing Definitions and Denouement, Washington: University Press of America, 1982, p. 3.
Kjell Goldmann, “Détente: Domestic Politics as a Stabilizer of Foreign Policy”, Research Monograph No. 48, Center for International Studies, Princeton University, 1984, pp. 42–43.
Containment is explored very well elsewhere. See, for example, John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982;
Terry L. Diebel and John Lewis Gaddis, eds, Containment: Concept and Policy, Vols 1–2, Washington: National Defense University Press, 1986. Nonetheless, it is important to understand containment as the basic framework out of which détente emerged.
John Lewis Gaddis, “Introduction: The Evolution of Containment,” in Terry L. Diebel and John Lewis Gaddis, eds, Containment: Concept and Policy, Washington: National Defense University Press, 1986, p. 4.
Simon Serfaty cited in Alton Frye, “Inching Beyond Containment: Détente, Entente, Condominium — and Orchestraint,” in Terry L. Diebel and John Lewis Gaddis, eds, Containment: Concept and Policy, Washington: National Defense University Press, 1986, p. 643.
George F. Kennan, “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” reprinted in Foreign Affairs, Vol. 65, No. 4, Spring 1987, p. 868.
George F. Kennan, “Peaceful Coexistence: A Western View,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 38, No. 2, January 1960, p. 178.
John Lewis Gaddis, “Introduction: The Evolution of Containment,” in Terry L. Diebel and John Lewis Gaddis, eds, Containment: Concept and Policy, Washington: National Defense University Press, 1986, P. 7.
Phil Williams, “Détente and U.S. Domestic Politics,” International Affairs, 1985, p. 432.
John Lewis Gaddis, “Introduction: The Evolution of Containment,” in Terry L. Diebel and John Lewis Gaddis, eds, Containment: Concept and Policy, Washington: National Defense University Press, 1986, p. 11.
Richard H. Ullman, “Containment and the Shape of World Politics, 1947–1987,” in Terry L. Diebel and John Lewis Gaddis, eds, Containment: Concept and Policy, Washington: National Defense University Press, 1986, p. 632.
For a related but different dichotomy, see Kenneth Dyson, ed., European Détente: Case Studies of the Politics of East-West Relations, London: Frances Pinter, 1986, p. 7.
Kjell Goldmann, “Détente: Domestic Politics as a Stabilizer of Foreign Policy”, Research Monograph No. 48, Center for International Studies, Princeton University, 1984, p. 27.
George F. Kennan, “Needed: A New American View of the U.S.S.R.,” in Fred Warner Neal, ed., Détente or Debacle: Common Sense in U.S.-Soviet Relations, New York: W. W. Norton, 1979, pp. 31, 34.
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© 1991 Michael B. Froman
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Froman, M.B. (1991). Détente: Context and Theory. In: The Development of the Idea of Détente. St Antony’s. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12676-7_1
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