Such views have been challenged by both statement and a number of international relations specialists, particularly following the end of the cold war. When he was British Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, for example, made the case in June 1992 that institutions themselves had played, and continued to play, a crucial role in enhancing security, particularly in Europe. He argued that the west had developed ‘a set of international institutions which have proved their worth for one set of problems’. He went on to argue that great challenge of the post-cold war era was to adapt these institutions to deal with the new circumstances that prevailed (Hurd, quoted in Mearsheimer 1994/5)