The Cold war

As World War II drew to a close in 1945, it became increasingly clear that a new era of international politics was dawning. Unparalleled in scope and unprecedented in destructiveness, the second great war of the twentieth century not only had brought about a system dominated by two superstates, the United States and the Soviet Union; it had also hastened the disintegration of the great colonial empires assembled by imperialist states in previous centuries, thereby emancipating many peoples from foreign rule. The emergent international system, unlike earlier ones, featured a distribution of power consisting of many sovereign states outside the European core area that were dominated by the two most powerful. In addition, the advent of nuclear weapons radically changed the role that threats of warfare would play in world politics. Out of these circumstances grew the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union for hegemonic leadership.

Consequences of the Cold War

The end of the Cold War has altered the face of world affairs in profound and diverse ways. It held out the promise of international peace but, at the same time, raised the specter of new kinds of global instability. As George Bush lamented in November 1991, "The collapse of communism has thrown open a Pandora's box of ancient ethnic hatreds, resentment, even revenge."

One consequence warrants particular attention: What does Russia's decline bode for the future? Can we expect another fifty years of great-power peace? Or will the transformed balance of power be a prelude to another great-power rivalry, and possibly war?

In the long run, Russia could again emerge as a superpower if it successfully addresses its long-neglected domestic problems. Lying in the heartland of Eurasia, a bridge between Europe and the Pacific Rim, with China and India to the south, Russia stands militarily tall—although it is surrounded by emerging great-power rivals. However, the immediate consequence of the Cold War's end is a transformed global hierarchy in which the former Soviet Union is no longer a challenger to U.S. hegemonic leadership. In accepting the devolution of its external empire, the Soviet Union has made the most dramatic peaceful retreat from power in history. The United States now sits alone at the top of the international hierarchy.

The future of great-power politics: a cold peace?

The end of the Cold War liberated both the United States and the Soviet Union from a rivalry that had extracted enormous resources and reduced their economic strength relative to other ascending great powers, such as China, Germany, and Japan. In this sense, both "lost".

The collapse of the East-West contest left the world facing unfamiliar circumstances. No longer was there a clear and present danger to delineate the purpose of power, and this basic shift invalidated the framework for much of the thought and action about international affairs in East and West since World War II.