Germany’s threat to recognize Croatia and Slovenia has been the biggest sticking point in Europe’s handling of the crisis. H. van den Broek, the E.C. President, condemned the idea outright.

Not long ago, the reputation of the Balkans as the tinderbox of Europe seemed , to have faded. Now the region is once again in flames, igniting fears of a broader conflagration. For years, Yugoslavia was the acceptable face of communism: estranged from Moscow, a pioneer of peaceful coexistence with…

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…

Dutch opposition politicians, especially those on the left, condemned the bombing raid by the U.S. on Gaddafi’s Libya.

The blow, when it finally fell, was unexpectedly jarring. Despite years of agonized Western debate about combatting terrorism, months of mostly fruitless diplomatic maneuvering, weeks of U.S. warnings and finally days of ominous public silence, the world still seemed unprepared when the bombers struck. Although Libya had felt the sting…

Foreign Minister Van den Broek, who visited Moscow, said that Gromyko seemed unwilling to make any concessions or any effort to understand the Dutch point of view.

For a month Ronald Reagan had been playing something of an unaccustomed role: the overanxious suitor. At nearly every opportunity, he betrayed his eagerness to meet with his Soviet counterpart. Two days after Mikhail Gorbachev was named Soviet Communist Party leader, Reagan invited him to a tete-a-tete in the…