Russia, collapsed and inward-looking after the Soviet Union's end in 1991, has been restored by Putin to the point that Cold War behavior is returning. He won a military victory over Georgia in 2008, annexed Crimea in 2014, and backs ethnic Russian fighters in eastern Ukraine, while American and European sanctions have done little to curb him. Moscow has threatened cyberattacks and even nuclear force if NATO builds up in the Baltic States or tries to reverse the Crimean annexation, and it hints that ethnic Russian populations in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia could become the next flashpoint. Russian air and sea incursions across the Baltic have reached levels not seen since the Cold War, with NATO jets scrambling 400 times in 2014. Russia is also arming the Arctic with new nuclear submarines and reopened Soviet-era bases. In response, Norway is raising defense spending, and nonaligned Finland is considering NATO membership. Europe's neighbors are shifting from a "rich, fat, and happy" mode to a watchful posture. The meaning in prophecy is uncertain, though it may confirm the turmoil and military aggression foretold for the end time (Matthew 24:6). It exposes the weakness of the U.S., and in the worst case a renewed Cold War could escalate to a far more explosive and deadly conclusion.

Throughout the Cold War, NATO served as a bulwark against a Soviet invasion of Europe. Its core principle held that an armed attack on one member in Europe or North America is an attack on all. This mattered enormously to Europe, which faced the real possibility of fifty Soviet and Warsaw Pact armored divisions and nearly two million troops pouring down the North European Plain. The Warsaw Pact at one point held a 2-to-1 advantage in main battle tanks, and the Soviets believed they could reach the Rhine in seven days, so Europe depended on America's promise of retaliation. Lord Ismay, NATO's first Secretary General, put the alliance's purpose pragmatically: keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down. The U.S. wanted to prevent any unified power from arising in Eurasia, since a Russia combining Europe's technology, ports, and resources with its own could threaten America. NATO, like the European Union, also lashed Germany to its neighbors so it could not go to war with them again. For four tense decades the Soviet threat loomed larger than any disagreement between Europe and America. NATO gave Europeans a security guarantee at little financial cost, which allowed small defense budgets and helped give birth to the European welfare state. The Warsaw Pact's dissolution in mid-1991 and the U.S.S.R.'s collapse later that year ended the unifying threat that had defined the alliance.

The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union significantly contributed to Germany's relative weakness for over 40 years. Divided between the two superpowers, Germany was as if shackled to the Berlin Wall, with West Germany prospering while East Germany languished under Moscow's control. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union allowed Germany to reunite, initiating the challenging process of aligning the former East Germany with the West's standards. This unification has largely succeeded, freeing Germany to assert its presence in Europe and beyond as a sovereign nation with the largest population and strongest economy on the continent.