World Order: The Cold War

World Order: The Cold War

Semester V- Paper IV-Module 2: World Order

I Chronology

   A. First Cold War

1.      1945- End of WW II- Failure of Yalta and Potsdam Conferences.

2.      1945-Rise of USA in the West and USSR in the East as ‘World Powers’.

3.      1947- Truman Doctrine and ‘Containment of Communism’ announced by US against Soviet expansion eastwards.

4.      June 1947- ‘Marshall Plan’ declared by US.

5.      1948- Berlin Crisis.

6.      1949-NATO formed by US.

7.      1949-May Stalin ends Soviet’s East Berlin Blockade.

8.       1949- Chinese Revolution under Mao Zedong.

9.      1950-June-Korean war-Communists North Korea attacks South Korea.

10.  1955-Warsaw Pact by USSR.

11.  1953-Death of Stalin-Modernisation of Soviet Society and Reformist policies for Eastern Europe under Nikita Khrushchev.

12.  1956-Soviet hegemony threatened in Hungary.

13.  1956-Suez Crisis

14.  1961- Berlin Wall closed the last undefined border between East and West Europe.

15.  1962 –Cuban missile crisis. 

16.  1963-Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) between US and USSR to reduce nuclear risks.

17.  1968-Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) between Nuclear States.

18.  1969- Détente between US and USSR.

19.  1969- Rapprochement between US and China.

20.  1973-Arab-Israeli War.

B. the ‘Second’ Cold War -Third World as a stage for super power conflicts

21.  1979-Iranian Revolution.

22.  1979-Afghanistan war.

23.  1980 US President Ronald Reagan embarks on campaigns to restore wounded US pride.

24.  1983 Soviet shoots down South Korean airplane-nuclear war fear between East-West.

25.  1985- USSR Presidents ‘glasnost’ and ‘perestroika’ unleashed forces that lead to decline and disintegration of Soviet empire.

26.  1986

27.  1987 (Washington): Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between Gorbachev and Reagan.

28.  1989 Collapse of Soviet Empire.

29.  1990 Collapse of Berlin Wall and German Unification.

30.  Disintegration of USSR

31.  1991-2001 Post Cold War Era-US as only super power.

 ‘Cold War’ a term coined by Walter Lippmann to describe a period of constant confrontation and tensions between two nuclear powers without an actual direct war between 1945-1989.

‘Balance of Power’ prevailed during cold war. The period was marked by high tensions but Balance of Power prevented war between the two super powers. The prevalence of peace due to presence of two equal, nuclear powers, made war a distinct possibility. The recognition of mutual zones of dominance helped maintain equilibrium of power. In other words, super power rivalry provided stability to international system.

‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ (MAD) meant that an all-out war between the two nuclear states would result in total destruction of life on earth. Hence it was seen as a constant danger during the entire period. It resulted in arms race and nuclear proliferation. It thus contributed to the maintenance of balance of threat in the international system.

‘Non-alignment’ was a policy devised by the third world countries to remain outside the zone of dominance of both the US and USSR. It allowed them not only to keep away from cold war politics but also criticize the super powers to indulge in politics of domination and conflicts. The policy allowed stability in third world.

European Integration under the ‘European Community’ was aimed to unite Europe under a common economic and security system. Designed to counter US dominance over Western Europe, it proved of limited significance. This was due to Western Europe’s dependence on Washington for its defence against USSR. Nonetheless it proved effective in countering the balance of power in West Europe during Cold War.  

II Features-Reasons -Core Issues involved in Cold War:

1.      At the end of WWII, the two super powers mutually divided Europe amongst themselves for dominance, except Germany and Austria. It was the domination over third world that became a major cause of confrontation and armed conflict between the US and USSR.

2.      Capitalism vs. Communism/constitutional democracy vs. social democracy: Danger of war based on super power perceptions of world order-suspicious and condemned each others ideology and political systems. However a direct war between the two did not occur mainly due to nuclear threat.

3.      In addition to ideology, confrontation also based on situations of each super power. The fact that each firmly believed its own ideology and socio-economic and political model as the best or ideal also led to rivalry. Another reason for persistent confrontation was that even though the US was more powerful than the USSR, allies preferred the dominance of a democratic US, and not of an autocratic USSR.

4.      In a democratic system like the US, the threat of an external enemy played an important role in domestic politics and influenced its foreign policy throughout cold war.

5.      Both sides engaged in to an Arms Race that meant Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) or total destruction. In addition, arms race also spread to countries that were allies or friends of super powers. A favourable arms market also provided a profitable export trade for the weapons industry.

6.      Both successfully used Nuclear power status to threaten other countries. But did not enter into war with each other. Britain, France, China, Israel acquired nuclear weapons during cold war.

III Reasons for the end of Cold War 

1.      Both powers recognized that the nuclear arms race was a threat to all and meant end of the world. Hence sincerely accepted the need to end it. Subsequent talks at Reykjavik (1986) and Washington (1987) led to arms limit and arms control between the super powers.

2.      The internal defects in the Soviet Economy along with inability to repay the rising debt on loans taken from the western capitalists led to collapse of socialism.

IV Conclusion-Impact on World Order

It led to the undermining of all other conflicts which later resurfaced during the post cold war. However Cold War had led to the creation of Balance of Power in the international system. Thus the power struggle got stabilized due to the super power rivalry. Entire period during 1945-89 was full of conflicts and threat of war. But actual war did not take place because of threat of total destructive war between super powers. Hence cold war enmity maintained stability in international politics.

A negative impact of cold war was the arms race on a massive scale that led to profiting arms industry. However, a major impact of cold war was seen in world politics. The countries of the world were divided in to two rival camps, mainly Europe, that faced domination of both US and USSR.Another impact of cold war was the rise of the market state and decline of welfare state capitalism.

The most serious effect is, and still continues to be, the nuclear threat along with that of chemical and biological weapons. The related threat of nuclear terrorism and of nuclear accidents like the Chernobyl 1986 and Fukushima 2011 present a real danger of total annihilation. 

While IR scholars disagree on the exact causes of the end of cold war, most argue that the cold war has left behind a nuclear threat. There is further disagreement among experts on the World Order in the post Cold War. While some argue that post Cold War is a Unipolar system. Others believe the same to be more a Multi-polar and sometimes Non-polar. To understand the above, we turn to understand the post Cold War period.