Changing Games, Changing Strategies provides a fresh look at the end of the Cold War and consequent changes in East-West security relations. The central question underlying the book is how a range of policies, previously thought to be unrealistic, became possible. Combining a post-Wittgensteinian approach to language, with insights from the critical theory of the Frankfurt School and Habermas, the book explores the relationship between meaning and practice in a detailed analysis of the contradictions of the late Cold War and post-Cold War world. The analysis demonstrates that developments over this twenty year period cannot be seen in isolation; Primakov's acts cannot be understood without Gorbachev; Reagan or Gorbachev's acts cannot be understood without the independent social movements or initiatives in both blocs; nor these movements without Helsinki. The study calls into question the conventional wisdom that the end of the Cold War was a case of "the West winning". Rather than a victory of one side over the other, the end of the Cold War represents a transition from conflict to dialogue and co-operation in a whole Europe, a conclusion which has consequences for the way we think about the future of East-West security relations against the background of NATO expansion.