Was the NATO expansion unavoidable? Mary E. Sarotte's foundational work, "Not one inch," explores this question. With these words, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker proposed a hypothetical deal to Gorbachev during the negotiations for German reunification: you free your part of Germany, and we won't move NATO eastward. Since then, numerous legends and controversies have surrounded this conversation. What exactly was promised back then? And how did the now highly controversial NATO expansion to the east come about?

After the end of the Cold War, many dreamed of a "common house of Europe," the "end of history," and the dawn of a peaceful era. But soon the picture darkened. The Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991, leaving a power vacuum. Moscow's bloody war in Chechnya unsettled observers in the West since 1994, particularly in the successor states of the Warsaw Pact. Thus, the exact opposite of what Baker had said took hold in Washington: no inch of European territory would now be off-limits to NATO.

Mary Elise Sarotte has sifted through vast amounts of archival material to clarify one of the great political controversies of our time. In her foundational book, she delves into the crucial decade between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of Putin. She shows why a new security architecture for Europe did not emerge, how the idea of NATO expansion to the east gained traction, and how the seeds were sown for the tensions that define our world today.

This is one of the most politically contentious topics of our time. The highly praised foundational work is now available in German, featuring many unknown archival sources and engaging writing. From the fall of the Berlin Wall to the NATO accession of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, the 1990s were a time of missed opportunities. Instead of a new peace order, a conflict-ridden stalemate emerged. If one wants to conduct a serious debate, this book is indispensable.