A Balance Sheet Of The Quadripartite Agreement On Berlin

This anniversary study presents a readable, informative account of the development and current structure of Berlin.

Using new archival sources--including previously secret documents of the East German secret police and Communist Party--M. E. Sarotte goes behind the scenes of Cold War Germany during the era of detente, as East and West tried negotiation instead of confrontation to settle their differences. In Dealing with the Devil, she explores the motives of the German Democratic Republic and its Soviet backers in responding to both the detente initiatives, or Ostpolitik, of West Germany and the foreign policy of the United States under President Nixon. Sarotte focuses on both public and secret contacts between the two halves of the German nation during Brandt's chancellorship, exposing the cynical artifices constructed by negotiators on both sides. Her analysis also details much of the superpower maneuvering in the era of detente, since German concerns were ever present in the minds of leaders in Washington and Moscow, and reveals the startling degree to which concern over China shaped European politics during this time. More generally, Dealing with the Devil presents an illuminating case study of how the relationship between center and periphery functioned in the Cold War Soviet empire.

Berlin has been a central issue in the postwar dispute between East and West and was often the spark that brought the Soviet bloc and the West to the brink of confrontation. Although the city's role in international politics has been muted in the nearly quarter century since the erection of the Berlin Wall, its political status remains unsettled, and its potential to precipitate a crisis and even a military conflict has lessened only by degree. The contributors to this volume discuss Berlin's future from the perspective of all the major national actors involved. Just as the Quadripartite Agreement of 1971 was a necessary prerequisite for East-West detente, any future change in the division of Germany or in East-West relations will require fundamental shifts in long-held positions on the status of Berlin. The authors show how the perceptions, stakes, and even risks of the Berlin issue vary by nation and explore the reasons why Berlin is likely to continue to be an obstacle to East-West cooperation.

The international system comprises a plurality of sovereign states often pursuing conflicting interests. One means of resolving or managing conflicts between those states is diplomatic bargaining or negotiation. In the last fifteen years, the study of negotiation has attracted researchers from various disciplines in the social sciences, and the vol