Mutual Perceptions of Long-Range Goals

The recent historic changes in the political landscape of Europe have profoundly affected what used to be called East-West relations. It is not clear what the final outcome of the recent movements will be. Will there be a new, stable equilibrium, with a prospect of continued peaceful development? Or will the local and regional instabilities, already visible in some parts of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, also affect international relations, particularly those between the United States and the Soviet Union, between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and among the major European nations? Whatever path history may take, it is clear that events will be deeply influenced by the perceptions acting elites hold of each other's long-range goals in the political reorientation of international relations. This study investigates such perceptions - including strategic, normative and imagined perceptions - of long-range political goals both in the East and in the West.