Since the end of World War II, the opposition between NATO and the Warsaw Pact has been the defining determinant of the foreign and security policy of the Western community of states. Therefore, for decades, the main focus has been on establishing a collective defense system to counter the potential aggressor on the other side of the Iron Curtain and securing peace in Europe through a strategy of deterrence. However, since the end of the Warsaw Pact, the threat to peace has no longer been the danger of an international war of global proportions. Instead, it has primarily been internal conflicts resembling civil wars. For German foreign and security policy, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the tendency toward destabilization in Southeast Europe has been one of the greatest challenges since the founding of the Federal Republic.