东欧剧变与冷战结束

自20世纪80年代中后期戈尔巴乔夫在苏联倡导改革与"新思维",经由苏美关系缓和与东欧剧变,特别是柏林墙倒塌和德国统一,直到华约组织和经互会解散、苏联解体,作为冷战一方的苏东集团和苏联退出历史舞台,冷战彻底走向终结。在冷战结束的过程中,东欧剧变起到承上启下的关键作用。它既是内部矛盾激化和苏联政策推动的结果,又直接导致了苏东集团解体并鼓舞了苏联正在发生的变化。东欧剧变和冷战结束后,苏美两极对峙格局不复存在。中东欧因俄罗斯的撒手和西方的犹疑落入安全真空,渴望"回归欧洲"。欧洲统一既因东西欧分界线的清除成为可能,又是摆脱冷战结束带来的困扰的必然选择。美国成为世界唯一的超级大国;俄罗斯国力衰弱、地缘政治影响力下降,不仅失去了与美国对抗的能力,也不再有与美国对抗的欲望,全面倒向西方。

Upheaval in Eastern Europe and the End of the Cold War

Since the second half of 1980s Gorbachev advocated perestroika and the "new thinking" in the Soviet Union, followed by detente between the Soviet Union and the United States, upheaval in Eastern Europe, the fall of the Berlin wall and the German unification, the disintegration of Warsaw Pact and the CMEA, the collapse of the Soviet Union. With the Soviet Bloc retreating from the stage of history, the Cold war come to its end. During the ending of the Cold war, the Eastern European upheaval played a key role in connecting the past and the future. The upheava is not only the results of the intensification of their internal contradictions and the promotion by the Soviet policies, it also directly leads to the disintegration of the Eastern Bloc and gave an impetus to the changes taking place in the Soviet Union. After the drastic changes in Eastern Europe and the end of the cold war, the bipolar confrontation pattern between the Soviet Union and the United States ceased to exist. Central and Eastern Europe, caught in a security vacuum by Russia’s withdrawal and the West’s hesitation, yearns to "return to Europe". European unification is not only possible because of the elimination of line between East and West, but also the inevitable choice to get rid of the trouble brought by the end of the Cold War. The United States became the world’s sole superpower;Russia’s weakness and declining geopolitical influence resulted in its losing the ability and desire to confront the United States and turning to the West.