Cold
War: The Wall Comes Down & Conclusion
The Cold War has been described as a
clash between Capitalist and Marxist-Leninist ideologies. The war ended when in
1991 the Soviet Union—the bedrock of communism—collapsed, and Marxist-Leninism
was no longer capitalism’s worthy adversary. The period since its end has been
labled the Post-Cold War era, but this lable has yet to acquire any true
meaning as in its ten years, academicians can not fully agree on international
system in which we currently live.
There is some debate over the origins of the Cold War.
Some argue that the conflict has it beginnings in World War II, where the mere
fact that the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the worlds only two
powers, made them natural enemies (Kegley and Wittkopf 2001). Others however,
indicate that the seed of the conflict were sewn in the 1917 Russian
Revolution—long before the second world war—for it was then Americans began
seeing Marxist-Leninism’s triumph as a possible threat to Wilsonian liberalism
and the American way of life (Brown 1997).
Whatever was its true conception, the Cold War as we
know it became a way of life and a defining international event, in the late
forties, the Soviets and Americans became suspicions of the other’s actions and
began reacting to them. Soviet implementation of communist governments in the
Eastern European States, broke the agreements made during the 1945 Yalta
Conference. America responded with the Marshall Plan in order to combat
communism’s appeal in war torn countries. Soviets viewed this as America’s continued
imperialistic endeavours and they reacted by invading Czechoslovakia and
constructing the Berlin wall. American in turn saw these developments as
evidence of Soviet’s intended expansionism and world domination.
These back and forth misconceptions made each side
increasingly convinced of the other’s ill will and the fear this generated
allowed for each to take an aggressive stance against the other. This signaled
the beginnings of a period were war was always an immediate possibility. They
divided themselves into military alliances: the Americans in the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Soviets in the Warsaw Pact, to defend
themselves from the others aggressions. This become the cornerstone of the East
/ West divide. The military capabilities of each became a restraint on the
other’s eagerness for war and although there were many significant
confrontations (e.g. the Cuban Missile Crisis), leaders on both sides realised
that a war would produce no true winners, hence the Cold War began to wane.
There was a resurgence of suspicion—propelled by Soviet actions in Asia—during
the first Ronald Regan presidency, but by that time the Soviet Union was on the
decline. In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev ascended as President of the Soviet Union
and looking for the greater good decided to put aside the rivalry in order to
save his country’s deterioration. The Cold War was beginning its end.
As documented in the Film the Cold War: The Wall Comes Down & Conclusion, Gorbachev and
Bush’s first meeting in 1989 had the Cold War’s end on the agenda. It came at a
time when communist regimes all over Europe were crumbling and Americans took
German reunification as a sign that the Cold War was truly coming to an ended. But while Gorbachev permitted the satellite states to
break from Soviet influence, he firmly opposed the break up of the Soviet
Union. So when Lithuanians demanded their independence and flocked to their
parliament to protect it, Soviet forces promptly trampled on them. Though
Gorbachev refused to have his country disintegrate, he realised the system, in
order to survive, needed reforming, so he allowed for a multiparty system, gave
the people the right to protest and drafted a plan that would give the other
members of the union limited autonomy by decentralising Moscow’s power. However
the true communist at heart resented Gorbachev’s reforms and saw his policies
as the destruction of the Union. In response they placed Gorbachev under house
arrest launched a coup to seize control of the Union, but it was very
unsuccessful and the dissidents soon conceded defeat, allowing Gorbachev’s
return to Moscow. When he returned the President acknowledged that things has
changed but it was not until he saw the power and following that Boris Yeltsin
has acquire did he realise just how dramatic a change it had been. Yeltsin,
anticipating the end of the Soviet Union, initiated the signing of a document
that declared its disbanding. He did so without informing the president and
when the deed was done, he informed President Bush before Gorbachev. Left with
little authority Gorbachev resigned and upon the disbanding of the Union the
Cold War finally ended. The United States no longer had an enemy.
The Realist theory of International Relations argues
that the state is the primary and only important actor in an anarchic
international system where war is a valid mean of gaining power. The actions
and policies of the state are based on the need for power and non-influential
states only factor into the international system when they can be used as pawns
in the power struggle. During the Cold War when the world was divided in every
sense under the Soviet and American planes of power, and non-powerful countries
(e.g Cuba) were used by one superpower to undermine the other, Realism became
the standard theory of International Relations as it managed to explained the
international system perfectly. However, with the peaceful end to the conflict
and the developments in its aftermath, Realism has undergone much scrutiny.
Now the international system is one of co-operation
where trading is not determined by political blocs, where non-powerful
countries receive assistance from more powerful nations and where International
Governmental Organisations (IGOs)— such as the United Nations—and International
Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) —such as Amnesty International—play such
a greater role in the international system, that some argue the role of the
state has diminished. All of these factors combine to seemingly disprove the
Realist theory on International Relations as these new developments seemingly
more resemble the Liberal / Wilsonian view of the International system.
The Cold War and the documentary’s
synopsis of its end, shows just how fluid the international system is. That at
any time one major event can change the entire dynamics of how the world
operates and that international relations is an ongoing ever changing study of
the world.