Title: the effect of the cold war on third world countries – Personal blogs
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the effect of the cold war on third world countries

Tag: the effect of the cold war on third world countries
In what ways did the Cold War affect international relations between 1945 and 1990?
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Content: 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. Decolonisation and the emergence of new nation-states attracted the attention of the superpowers, arms and other support poured into the continent and the result was disastrous (Mcmahon, 2003). The Cold War led to major impact to International order; because the post Cold War order of bipolarity and the balance of power has ended making the US the only superpower in the world and therefore can take whatever actions she desires with impunity this change ended an era of peace in the world this view is held by Mearsheimer (1994) as cited by (Baylis et al., 2008) Mearsheimer held the idea that, the Cold War era was a period of peace and stability. Furthermore, towards the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, the Soviet Union suffered a considerable economic decline as a direct result of the Cold War because of huge military spending. (