As someone that grew up in Europe it was clear to me and as far as I could tell every one around me that the economic, cultural, etc integration after the cold

As someone that grew up in Europe it was clear to me and as far as I could tell every one around me that the economic, cultural, etc integration after the cold war was to develop a rules based relationship with Russia to reduce the risk of another war. To a lesser extend but similar to how European countries tightly integrated with each other on all levels making an armed conflict less likely than otherwise.