There are many different political theories that try to explain the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Two prominent political theories which I will explore throughout this essay are the Realist and Idealist theory. No one theory is completely correct, as many different factors must be considered regarding the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War. For example, one essential influence to the end of the Cold War was the role of nuclear weapons and how they were used.
I believe that realism does in fact do a good job in explaining the end of the Cold War. Goldstein and Pevehouse note that realism is, “…a school of thought that explains international relations in terms of power.” (43) Often called “power politics”, this theory shaped how states came out of World War II and guided the Cold War in terms of self-interest. Realists look at the world in terms of what it really is, not what it ought to be. The realist explanation of the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union can be described in terms of power. The logic of power suggest that that in wars, the more powerful state will generally prevail. Two important elements of power that lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union was military power and GDP. After World War II, the United States economy experienced a postwar economic boom that provided a period of economic prosperity, however this did not hold true for the Soviet Union. Instead, the Soviet Union suffered from
The orthodox view regarding the cause of the Cold War, formed the standard interpretation between the 1940s and early-1960s. The breakdown of the wartime alliance and the expansion of Soviet
In my opinion, I would say yes, realism does do a good job explaining the ending of the Cold War. Based on the history of the Cold War and what realism is, I came to this conclusion because no country took control over the other and leadership issues caused problems inside the USSR. When the Cold War first began in 1940s, both super-powered sides were ran by two leaders; who had full control over everything involving the state. The
At the end of the Second World War two major issues were brought to attention. The first was dealing with the destruction of the global catastrophe. The second issue involved the shape of the new world and what political alliances were to be made. And although the U.S. and Russia were “allies” during the war the second issue was the foremost cause of the contention between the world’s two political/economic systems, Capitalism and Communism. The Cold War was basically an ideological catch-22
Like I said the three main causes of the Cold War were the spheres of influence, ideology, and military factors. The spheres of influence is like a challenge, if the United States gains power the Soviet Union would react in fear, and vise versa. Ideology has to do with capitalism and socialism. The same thing is going on with the Soviet Union except they practice socialism. Military factors are when one side of the war makes an adjustment to their military, the other responds in kind. For example if the United States made a new bomb, the Soviet Union would do the same thing.
There are many opinions on who started the Cold War, whether it be the USSR’s fault or the United States. With old trust issues rising up again, the next forty years resulted in constant tension and aggression between the two rival powers. But, when it’s time to place the blame for this tedious conflict, it is clear the United States can be blamed, for they were constantly imposing their greater power, and led the USSR to lose their trust due to international acts of aggression from the US. From 1945-1991 the US took action abroad to stop the USSR from gaining more global power, they misinterpreted Soviet motives, and threatened the USSR with acts of aggression through major bomb threats. With both nations having different motives after WWII,
The Cold War was a state of economic, diplomatic, and ideological discord among nations without armed conflict. The Cold War was between the United States and the USSR because these were the two major powers after WWII. Basically, the Cold War was a series of proxy wars that had taken place back in time involving surrounding countries. One of the main causes for Cold War was that the Soviet Union was spreading communism and the United States didn’t like that so they were trying to contain communism. However, in the end they failed. Many events took place in other countries. In Korea, Vietnam, Latin America, and China, communism took over; however, before it did, major wars had taken place. The cold war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union worsened the condition of countries involved. The Cold War broke countries into two parts that turned against each other, the United States and the Soviet Union used these countries to fight their war and caused a big disturbance to daily life, and the Communist States fought the Non-Communist States; however, the end results of these wars only caused more damage in these countries.
Right after the end of World War II with the Allied forces rejoicing over a marginal victory over Germany, a new and different kind of war was brewing over the tensions of the Western and Eastern blocs, a kind that wouldn’t be fought on the battlefield. The Cold War began in the year of 1945 and lasted all the way until 1991. A cause of the Cold War was the tension between two former allies of World War II, the United States of America and the Soviet Union (also known as the USSR, which stood for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). The United States had a democratic government and a capitalist economy, while the Soviet Union had a communist government, each trying to spread their political views and gain world power. Neither of the two
The final conclusion of the Cold war has created dubiety in historians which they have stayed with their doubt on viewing the perspective if president Ronald Reagan actually won the Cold War. Some historians have came upon to conclude that it was Reagan’s policies help with the war.While on the other hand, historians may say that it was the actions of Gorbachev that held lead to the end of the Cold War. During 1940-1991 the Soviet Union was already facing economic problems, in which once Reagan raised the amount of money for the arms race, the Soviet union began to struggle.Not only that but, “The conflict was a geopolitical and ideological struggle, which not only involved armies and resources, but ideas and values”(Gurney pg.1).The Cold
To understand why the Cold War occurred and why it was inevitable it is necessary to understand the differing ideologies the two countries of the United States and Soviet Union held. The United States was a democracy with a freely elected government that was voted by the people for the people. The Soviet Union was a communist nation whose government attempted to control all aspects of living to better their society as a whole. These two
There are multiple schools of thought on the Cold War. Each developed in reaction to the historical context in which the secondary source was written. The traditional view of the Cold War focuses on Soviet’s expansionist policy at the end of the World War Two. The United States viewed the Soviet Union as an enemy against a capitalist economic structure. Traditionalist thinkers are an extension of the realist school of thought, which viewed the Soviet Union as a villain and the United States as the protector of the world.
An explanation as to why can be determined when examining the events that led up to the fall of the Soviet Union and ultimately the end of the Cold War. To begin, the Cold War was a period of time that consisted of great tension between the United States and their European allies, and the Soviet Union and their reign of power. The end was considered dramatic, swift, and most surprisingly, unexpected (Heywood, 2014). Basically, 70 years of communism was dissolved over only 2 years. In 1990, the CSCE Paris Conference declared the end of the Cold War and the following the year, the Soviet Union Collapsed.
The orthodox view of the Cold War elucidates its inevitability due to the great ideological differences that existed between the Soviet Union and United States. On the other hand, the revisionists argued that it happened due to the actions that Soviets took and the consequential responses made by the United States as a result of their inflexible, single-sided interpretations of Soviet action. Yet, even with the backdrop of the early Bolshevik conflict in 1918 as well
This essay will address why the three main approaches to world politics did not predict the end of the Cold War. Firstly it will briefly give a background insight into what the Cold War was. Then it will go on to explain what characterises the three main approaches to world politics which are Realism, Pluralism and Structuralism, it then will briefly look at the distinctive theory behind them. Lastly the essay will analyse whether or not the three main approaches could have predicted and anticipated the end of the Cold War.
In 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union were allies, jointly triumphant in World War II, which ended with total victory for Soviet and American forces over Adolf Hitler 's Nazi empire in Europe. However, within just a few years, wartime allies became mortal enemies, locked in a global struggle: military, political, economic, and ideological, to prevail in a new "Cold War." The Cold War was a time of extreme tension between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), or the Soviet Union and the United States, and their respective ideologies. It was not declared in the same sense as most wars, rather it progressed over time. Therefore there are different opinions on the exact beginning of the War. Some say the Cold War really
The term “Cold War” refers to the second half of the 20th century, usually from the end of the World War II until 1990, when the Soviet Union collapsed. Since the 1940s and 1950s the scholars have disagreed on the topic of the origins of the Cold War. There are several groups of historians and their interpretations are very different, sometimes even contradictory. The three main schools are the orthodox, the revisionist and the realist. The classification is not completely accurate because we can find several differences in theories of scholars within the same group and often the authors reevaluated their ideas over time.