Deal or No Deal? The End of the Cold War and the U.S. Offer to Limit NATO Expansion

Summary

Co-winner of the 2017 Article Award given by the Diplomatic Studies Section of the International Studies Association (ISA).

During the 1990 German reunification negotiations, did the United States promise the Soviet Union that it would not expand NATO into Eastern Europe? Although no written agreement exists, archival materials reveal that U.S. officials did indeed offer the Soviets informal non-expansion assurances, while keeping open the possibility of expansion and seeking to maximize U.S. power in post–Cold War Europe.

Read: Joshua Shifrinson's op-ed in the Los Angeles Times.

Listen: Micah Zenko interviews Shifrinson for the Politics, Power, and Preventive Action podcast.

Watch: Shifrinson discusses his article and its implications for current U.S.-Russia relations.