Abstract
The multiple processes of Detente opened up social and ideological stresses as the clear-cut East-West divide was broken down. Detente became a threat to the socio-political cohesion of the Western alliance, raising the challenge to explain why the West still needed to defend itself militarily against an apparently diminishing threat. International cooperation was envisaged from the very beginning, since the communist challenge represented ‘a totality’ for both military and civilian alike: the threat from the East can only be resisted through the voluntarily merged political, military, economic, and ideological power of the Atlantic Community. It was at the Copenhagen meeting that the first cracks in international cooperation began to appear. The Copenhagen meeting also illustrated the scale of the problem facing People and Defence as a credible, effective actor in European society and politics. The establishment of the Dutch Volk en Verdediging (VV) was formally announced at a press conference on 30 August 1962.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | The 'Long 1970s': Human rights, East-West Détente and Transnational Relations |
Editors | Poul Villaume, Rasmus Mariager, Helle Porsdam |
Publisher | Routledge |
Publication date | 1 Jan 2016 |
Chapter | 5 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781472459404 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2016 |
Keywords
- Faculty of Humanities