Europe’s eastern boundary was undefined until the Cold War ended

Evidence

Establishing that line in Europe has been one of the principal challenges confronting the West in the post-Cold War world. During the Cold War Europe as a whole did not exist. With the collapse of communism, however, it became necessary to confront and answer the question: What is Europe? Europe’s boundaries on the north, west, and south are delimited by substantial bodies of water, which to the south coincide with clear differences in culture. But where is Europe’s eastern boundary? Who should be thought of as European and hence as potential members of the European Union, NATO, and comparable organizations? — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 428

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sets up the framing problem that the following paragraph answers with the civilizational divide.