The advent of Gorbachev has marked a new stage in East-West relations, sometimes described as the 'New Detente'. How is this new phase different from the detente of the 1970s? Is it merely part of an alternating cycle of confrontation and relaxation? Or could it be the beginning of the end of the Cold War in Europe?

This book addresses these questions from a novel perspective. While taking into account geopolitical and strategic considerations, its contributors focus on the underlying social, economic, and political conditions for a new detente. Running throughout is a preoccupation with the relationship between state and society, and an emphasis on the importance of democratic politics in both East and West.

The authors represent a range of radical opinion. Writers from Eastern Europe include official reformers, and representatives of the new informal movements such as the Greens in Hungary, Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia, Solidarity in Poland, and the Socialist Clubs movement in the Soviet Union. Western authors include local government, peace and green activists.

Contributors include: Richard Falk, Gerard Holden, Egbert Jahn, Boris Kagarlitsky, Mary Kaldor, Adam Michnik, Istvan Rev, Martin Ryle and Kate Soper, Jaroslav Sabata, Milan Simecka, Hilary Wainwright and Karsten Voigt.