Europe after the Cold War

Abstract

During the last five years, from the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 to the final evacuation of Russian troops from Germany and the Baltic states in August 1994, so many events have been acclaimed as the end of the Cold War that it is necessary to begin this discussion with an assertion that this should be seen as a process rather than a point of time. While ‘hot’ wars do end at precise dates, the Cold War which was often as much a question of attitudes and ‘mind-sets’ as specific political or military realities has had a slower end. As Iohan jørgen Holst said in his last major speech to the Storting on 25 October 1993, ‘Periods such as this hold an inherent challenge. They force us to think along new lines, while at the same time bearing in mind the importance of permanence in a changing world.’²