The ‘new European architecture’

This chapter discusses the changes in the basic architecture of European foreign policy during the mid- and late 1980s. These changes were brought about by the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, which eventually led to the dismantling of the Iron Curtain and the breach of the Berlin Wall. This was followed by Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev's introduction of the so-called ‘new thinking’ to Soviet domestic and foreign policy, which influenced Russian relations with its Central and Eastern European allies. Though the West was slow to react to these changes, the U.S. was able to take advantage of the opportunity to affirm its commitment to remain a ‘European power’.