Krieg der Narrative – Das Jahr 1990 und die NATO-Osterweiterung

Author(s): Christian Nünlist
Journal Title: SIRIUS Zeitschrift für Strategische Analysen
Volume: 2
Issue: 4
Pages: 389-397
Publisher(s): Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Publication Year: 2018
Publication Place: Berlin

An important point of contention between Russia and the West is the alleged Western “promise” in 1990 not to expand NATO further east. Russian leaders still emphasize today that Gorbachev heard this Western promise in talks about German reunification in 1990. Today, this controversy can largely be answered on the basis of recently declassified archival documents. Western guarantees in February 1990 referred only to the GDR; but the West deceived Gorbachev at the same time with vague promises of an inclusive European security order, while the George H.W. Bush administration deliberately centered the new security architecture in Europe around the exclusive NATO (without the USSR).

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