Common European Home

• 1. Origins And Antecedents

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  Leonid Brezhnev used the phrase Common European Home during a visit to Bonn, West Germany in 1981. This early usage likely aimed to sow discord between the United States and its European allies. The goal was moderating American policy through division rather than cooperation. Mikhail Gorbachev later adopted a similar phrase in a 1985 statement calling the Old World our common house. He framed it as an acknowledgment of an integral whole despite opposing military blocs. The concept gained prominence when he presented his all-European house idea during a visit to Czechoslovakia in April 1987.

• 2. Prague Declaration Of 1987

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  Mikhail Gorbachev delivered his main address in Prague declaring an overriding significance to the European course of foreign policy. He stated resolute opposition to dividing the continent into military blocs facing each other. The speech introduced the idea of an all-European house signifying states belonging to different social systems. Eastern European analysts viewed this rhetoric as a method to prevent outright revolt from the Eastern Bloc. Jim Hoagland wrote that Gorbachev's Common European Home competed with George H. W. Bush's Europe Whole and Free concepts. These competing ideas described the economic and ideological collapse of Soviet power concurrent with the European Community gaining new dynamism.

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• 3. Bonn Talks And Joint Declarations

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  General Secretary Gorbachev arrived in Bonn on the 12th of June 1989 for private talks with Chancellor Helmut Kohl. President Richard von Weizsäcker also participated in these high-level discussions between Soviet leaders and West German officials. The following day Kohl and Gorbachev signed a joint declaration supporting national self-determination. This agreement included mutual reduction in nuclear and conventional forces within a Common European Home framework. Gorbachev appropriated Charles de Gaulle's Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals geographical definition during these negotiations. He attempted to keep the Soviet Union presence prescribed while engaging with Western partners.

• 4. Strasbourg Philosophy And Restraint

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  Gorbachev spoke before the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on the 6th of July 1989 regarding the philosophy of restraint. He declared that the concept rules out the probability of an armed clash or use of force against alliance. A doctrine of restraint should take the place of the doctrine of deterrence according to his speech logic. This was not just play on words but the logic of European development prompted by life itself. The shift represented a fundamental change in how security was conceptualized across the continent during this period.

• 5. Romanian And Vatican Diplomacy

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  Robert D. Hormats saw the nascent European Community primely positioned to take on the role of a Common European Home. He cited its moral, political, social and economic strength as key factors for success. Ronald D. Asmus noted that Gorbachev's vision relied on controlled reform in Eastern Europe. Reformist communist parties were expected to continue playing an important role in their countries' politics including in the German Democratic Republic. Coit D. Blacker wrote that Soviet leadership believed loss of authority in Eastern Europe would be offset by

• 6. Analyst Interpretations And Outcomes

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  increased influence in western Europe.