Answer: C. a relaxation of tensions
Détente means "loosening" or "relaxing." Countries which have been strongly at odds with one another, with much tension between them, make an effort to relax that tension through negotiations. That does not mean they stop spending on military programs, but they do try to pull back from the brink of possible war.
In history, the famous example of détente occurred between the USA and the USSR, beginning in the 1970s. There was an effort to ease the heated tensions of the Cold War. Rather than continuing the massive buildup of nuclear arsenals in an arms race, the United States and the Soviet Union began to talk to one another about the strategic reduction of armaments. The nations' leaders, Leonid Brezhnev and Richard Nixon, met in Moscow in 1972 -- the first visit of a US president to Moscow. They signed agreements stemming from these Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT), which began a new direction in policy between the two superpowers.
