(New Eastern Europe) At the end of 2014 Mikhail Gorbachev wrote that he feared that the global order was now returning to that of the Cold War. “One primary reason,” Gorbachev wrote, “is that the trust created by hard work and mutual effort in ending the Cold War has collapsed. Without such trust, peaceful international relations in today’s globalised world are inconceivable.” The reasoning behind Gorbachev’s arguments is seen in “the events of the past few months” and “the consequences of short-sightedly seeking to impose one’s will while ignoring the interests of one’s partners.” […]
Mark Kramer wrote that “the purpose here has simply been to determine whether Russian and western observers and officials are justified in arguing that the US government, and perhaps some of the other NATO governments, made a ‘pledge’ to Gorbachev in 1990 that if the USSR consented to Germany’s full membership in NATO after unification, the alliance would not expand to include any other East European countries. Declassified materials show unmistakably that no such pledge was made. Valid arguments can be made against NATO enlargement, but this particular argument is spurious.” […]
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