Why Did The Cold War End Australia

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The end of the Cold War marked the conclusion of a great geopolitical and ideological struggle between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. The manner in which the war ended was historically unusual and unlike any other before it. The bipolar nature of the international system - which had defined the war - ended peacefully. Furthermore, unlike after previous wars, the international system - or, at least, the main pillars of that system - were not overturned. In fact, as I will argue in this essay, the world system that the United States of America created after the Second World War remained in place throughout the 1990s. In other words, the end of the Cold War only served to consolidate and expand the core principles of this system …show more content…

When the Cold War ended, the logic of the American system was extended to the larger global system. The system aimed to encourage globalisation, integration and democratisation. The founding of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) are evidence of the attempt to normalise these concepts internationally. Moreover, the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the reaffirmation of American alliances in East Asia also served to consolidate the post-war liberal international system. Nuclear weapons ensured stability within this expanding system by making war between the major states unlikely. Few observers expected the end of the Cold War to facilitate the continuation and expansion of a pre-existing international system. Perhaps this explains, in part, why Hobsbawm (1994) describes the international landscape of the 1990s as 'unclear ' and akin to 'global …show more content…

After the sudden conclusion of the Cold War, this international order led by the United States survived and provided the organisational logic of the post-Cold War system. International liberalism was escalating rapidly. Democracy and markets flourished throughout the world, globalisation was acknowledged as a progressive historical force, whilst the incidence of ideological and nationalist sentiment fell. Existing institutions were strengthened and new ones, such as the European Union, were founded. Newly market-oriented developing countries - or 'emerging markets ' - became increasingly incorporated into the

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