Policymakers in the U.S., Britain, Canada and the Netherlands remained convinced that throwing money at Gorbachev was no cure for his country’s crippling economic ills.

Though it was mercifully short-lived, the specter of a totalitarian regime in Moscow and a revival of the cold war badly frightened the world’s major industrial powers. The nightmare evaporated quickly, but it left the wealthy democracies facing an urgent question: What were the best ways to help ensure that…

The help of old Allies during the North Sea floods has grown into a special kind of comradeship.

As if Western Europe had not already had more than enough of weather, howling blizzards swirled down on Britain last week, while high spring tides threatened The Netherlands and rivers overflowed in Belgium. But man’s battle with nature was slowly being won. Everywhere, catastrophe and the willingness to share it…