Abstract
Examines the challenges facing Eastern Europe in the final days of the Cold War.
Description
By 1991 the Cold War was in its final throes. Across Europe, socialist governments were in retreat, and in Germany the process of reunification was well underway. However, the sudden collapse of communism in Eastern Europe posed significant new challenges to both Europe and the United States. Economic upheaval in the Warsaw Pact states, ethnic and nationalist uprisings, and the possibility of a refugee crisis created an unstable political environment that proved no less problematic to the U.S. and its NATO allies than the old days of the Cold War. In this new Europe, will the United States be able to maintain its influence over former allies, and will the forces for integration win out over the forces for separation and conflict that for years plagued the region? In this episode, former National Security Advisor Richard Allen, Foreign Policy magazine editor William Maynes, and Karen Elliott House of the Wall Street Journal examine the obstacles that stand in the way of a safe, stable Europe and the future of American interests in the region.
