To Build a Better World: Choices to End the Cold War and Create a Global Commonwealth

Diplomat and professor Zelikow and former secretary of state Rice follow their joint work on German reunification, Germany United and Europe Transformed, with an exploration of the policy decisions, made and unmade, that led to the end of the Cold War and the creation of a unified Europe in 1988–1992. The authors, who were both involved in these decisions, excel at analytical history, breaking down various political, diplomatic, and economic factors in Mikhail Gorbachev’s democratic reforms (which hastened the end of the Soviet Union through a failed 1991 coup), the opening of the Berlin Wall, and the development of the E.U. as it exists today. Insights into the personalities of the main political players are scant, but the reader is given occasional reassessments of the conventional wisdom on figures such as President George H. W. Bush, and the authors intersperse brief firsthand perspectives from key decision makers, such as Secretary of State James A. Baker and national security advisor Brent Scowcroft. Zelikow and Rice’s thoughtful and honest assessment, largely avoiding wonkishness, lays a clear through line from the diplomatic successes of the 1980s and ’90s to the political environment of today. [em](Sept.) [/em]