Mains Marathon

Approach

• Introduce briefly explaining the cold war.
• Discuss the causes that ended the cold war and its effect on international relations.
• Conclude suitably

Answer

The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, which began following World War II. Generally, it was started from the announcement of the Truman Doctrine on 12 March 1947 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991.

The term cold war is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers, but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars. The conflict was based around the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers.

• Brinkmanship (tactics of going to the verge of wars without any war to achieve desired outcome against opponents.)
• Proxy wars
• Arm Race
• Space Race
• Nuclear Stockpile
• Psychological warfare
• Espionage
• Propaganda, etc., were some of the characteristics of the cold war used by both parties.

Causes responsible for end of the cold war:

There were several causes responsible for the end of cold war's ranging from home country to international effects:

• Collapse of USSR in Dec. 1991: USSR splits into numbers of republics due to:
  • Economic failure of communism both in home county and in eastern Europe to elevate the living standard of the people economically.
  • Too much centralisation in policy formulation and execution
  • Increased inefficiency in governance and alienation of people from policies of government.
  • Decline of export with western nations due to cold wars and poverty of Asian and African allies had little potential for export.
  • Gorbachev's policy of openness, economic and social reform led people to turn against him
• Other Factor in Europe:
  • Between 1988-1991 there was opposition and mass demonstrations in eastern Europe against communism.
  • In 1988, Poland organised solidarity trade union and anti-communist govt rallies and forced govt to allow free election. It defeated communism in Poland.
  • Hungary also allowed free elections and led to the defeat of communism.
  • In Germany, several incidents had occurred that led to defeat of communism in Germany, like:
    • Unification of western Germany and flourishing economic condition financed by the Marshall plan
    • Breach of the Berlin Wall led to the unification of eastern and western Germany in 1990
  • Eastern European states like Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania also protested and led to the overthrow of communist government.

Effect of cold war on the international Relation:

• Disintegration of USSR into 15 states and USA emerged as leader of unipolar world.
• Balkanisation of Yugoslavia into nations like Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Eastern Europe adopted full liberalisation of thier economy just after the collapse of USSR under western pressure.
• Disband of WARSAW Pact and formation of a Russian led collective rapid reaction force, like NATO, called Collective security Treaty Orgnisation (CSTO) among the nations of Caucasus region and Central Asian nations in 1992.
• More unity among western Europe signed The Maastricht Treaty in 1991 which led to the establishment of the European Union (EU).
• Disintegration of the USSR led to the expansion of NATO and the EU in eastern Europe states.
• Allies of the USSR like India and Cuba had to diversify their relations to western nations.
• India had liberalised her economic policies from socialist economy to socio-capitalist model of economy.
• In 1990 NATO (The North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and Warsaw Pact signed a treaty that they are not adversaries and their weapons used only in self-defense. It was a move dedicated to peace.
• More supervision for the nuclear program by stopping nuclear proliferation through START I (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) on the reduction and the limitation of strategic offensive arms signed in 1991.

The Cold war was a watershed event in international history that had various repercussions. It acted as a testing time for democracy on the global stage. Today’s numerous problems emerged during the cold war era like nuclear proliferation, group formation.

Today’s global geo-economic and political situations and international relations between China and USA (both being 2 largest economic and military power) heading towards the new cold war era. Today, It is the responsibility of nations and international organisations that we must prevail in the situation for dialogue and diplomacy and must refrain from the cold war mentality.