Title: In what ways did the Cold War affect international relations between 1945 and 1990? – Personal blogs
Headings: In what ways did the Cold War affect international relations between 1945 and 1990?
In what ways did the Cold War affect international relations between 1945 and 1990?
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Published by Nassir Hassan

Content: they pursued political and ideological goals some of which were ever more opposing with the objectives of the other for example: the Soviet believed that America is an imperialist power and therefore committed to spreading capitalist ideology with the intention of dominating the rest of world, on the other hand, the USA saw the Soviet as an ideologically motivated and “antagonistically” expansionist evil empire that is committed to the spread of communism (Painter, 2001). Thus as Bell (2001) pointed out both superpowers advocated that their system of belief was the only way forward for a better world. Another impact of the Cold War was the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 that internationally created fears of an imminent nuclear war between the US and the USSR this clearly further increased tension between the two superpowers and their allies and as Baylis et al. ( 2008) suggested this was the “most dangerous moment” the world has ever seen since the end of the second world war (Baylis et al 2008, p.62). furthermore, in November 1983, NATO carried out operation “Able Archer” exercise which “simulated a coordinated” Nuclear attack against the Soviet this further led the Soviets to believe that America is preparing to attack them and they, in turn, took steps to prepare their Nuclear forces this further exacerbated tension in the region as the tension developed a possible war between them meant that the entire world might be destroyed in an all-out nuclear war (Murphy, 2003). Indeed the Cold War divided the world into three camps; some of those camps were armed with conventional and nuclear missiles that can reach each other’s cities both superpowers were ready to protect their sphere of interests using whatever means necessary thus, their actions caused tensions within the international community. Although the Cold War caused and exacerbated conflict in some parts of the world, it also maintained order and peace that existed (Mearsheimer, 1990) and made possible the reconstruction and assimilation of defeated powers of Germany, Italy and the “transformation” of Japan from a war-torn country to the second most powerful economy in the world (McWilliams & Piotrowski, 2005). But this positive aspect cannot be compared with the negative impact it had on the Third Word especially that of Africa where the Cold War fuelled the civil war and caused many deaths and destructions through proxy wars and civil wars.