Helmut Schmidt is the neglected chancellor of modern German history, overshadowed by 'the greats' - Bismarck, Adenauer, Brandt and Kohl. This volume retrieves Schmidt's true significance as a pivotal figure who helped reshape the global order during the crisis-ridden 1970s. This major reinterpretation, based on detailed research in Schmidt's private papers and numerous archives in Europe and America, reveals him as a leader equally skilled in economics and security, and adept at personal diplomacy, who dared to act as a 'double interpreter' between the superpowers during the nadir of the Cold...

In 1989 and 1990 the map of Europe was transformed peacefully, without the wars which caused the other great ruptures of the international order in 1815, 1870, 1918, and 1945. What role did international summitry play in the denouement of the Cold War?

Scholars have tended to focus on long-term systemic factors, Gorbachev's reform agenda, or the impact in 1989 of 'people power'. This major multinational study, based on archives from both sides of the 'Iron Curtain', adopts a novel perspective by exploring the contribution of international statecraft to the dissolution of Europe's bipolar...