Editor's Note

This special issue on “CSCE, the German Question, and the Warsaw Pact,” compiled from a group of manuscripts originally submitted by Gottfried Niedhart, follows up on and enriches articles pertaining to these topics that have appeared earlier in the journal. Although several manuscripts in the original group did not make it through the review process, the articles that appear here offer a focused assessment of four of the seven Warsaw Pact countries as well as of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), a key member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The unifying theme is the way these countries sought to enhance their security and promote their political aims during the rise of East-West détente in Europe in the 1970s, especially the way they dealt with two crucial issues: the German question (i.e., the bifurcation of Germany in a divided Europe) and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in...