Explaining the Long Peace in Europe: the contributions of regional security regimes

Abstract

During the postwar era, much scholarship was concerned with understanding the causes of the Cold War and with identifying ways in which East—West tensions might be reduced. Since the 1980s, however, an increasing number of analysts have chosen to characterize the years following World War II as a ‘Long Peace’, during which, contrary to many fears and expectations, a major war never occurred. Rather than focusing on the sources of hostility between the leading powers of the period, these scholars have sought to explain how military conflict between them was avoided for an extended length of time.