Gra o Europę Bezpieczeństwo europejskie w polityce Stanów Zjednoczonych pod koniec XX wieku

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Empire -which effectively, ended the Cold War- brought about a new situation both in Europe and in the world. The emergence of an economically strong and politically democratic Germany, led to the disappearance of the German question from the European map in its twentieth century dimension. This in turn gives the continent a chance to integrate. On the global scale, the hitherto bi-polar disposition of forces was. replaced by the ascendancy of the US and by a reinforcement of American power on the International arena. This new situation, does no imply however the victory of a system based on values such as liberalism and democracy~ This was confirmed by developments in Central-Eastern Europe, which became the scene of antagonistic outbreaks based on ethnic, religious, social and economic differences. The uncertain situation in the region, as well as in the former Soviet Union created new challenges and threats linked with the security of that part of Europe as well as of all the continent. At the same time, there came to the fore the question about the role and place Western Europe in post Cold War conditions, about the aspect of its security policies which, up to then had been based on cooperation with the US within a NATO framework Questions were raised whether American involvement in the Old world is indispensable and whether Europe -in the process of integration- is capable of solving its own problem The author of the above book tries to answer those questions by analyzing US policy as relates to European security, understood as a guarantee of stability and positive development of individual countries.