HISTORY OF INT. REL. SINCE
1945:CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL ISSUES
LAURA VILLANUEVA
BBABIR 1ST YEAR
2ND SEMESTER
SESSIONS 1 AND 2
THE COLD WAR
,Stages
1945–1953 → Initial stage
1953–1962 → Competitive Coexistence
1962–1979 → Peaceful Coexistence And Détente
1979–1985 → Renewed Confrontation
1985–1989/91→ Decline and Collapse
The Cold War started unexpectedly early after the end of WWII – almost without a pause It had three
dimensions:
★ Ideological
Global conflict between the two political-economic systems: capitalism and communism The
Three Worlds of the Cold War
- The capitalist West
- The communist East
- The Third World (now called the Global South)
East-West conflict: Will capitalism survive or will be replaced by some forms of socialism or
communism? In the Third World, massive struggles for national independence from Western
colonial empires.
★ Geopolitical
The Global Left – a broad spectrum of political forces which were anything but united consisted
of:
- Communist states (the Soviet Union, People’s Republic of China, Eastern Europe, etc.)
- Communist parties around the world, most of them supported by the USSR (biggest
communist parties existing in Italy, France, and India)
- Moderate Left forces (social democrats, labour movements, movements for democracy,
etc.)
- Anti-colonial forces in the Third world
Before WWII, there were seven countries which were more powerful than the others: Britain,
France, USA, USSR, Germany, Italy, Japan
The end of WWII saw the rise of two superpowers:
➔ USA and USSR, each with a global mission of its own→ This led to a bipolar world;
something unique in world history who were challenging each other, containing
each other and trying to control other states to follow them. But the two
superpowers also had to cooperate with each other to keep their power. Each
needed the other as “The Other” because both wanted to survive and this put limits
to their confrontation.
★ Military
The 2 giants never engaged each other in a significant direct armed conflict between them, they
fought wars by proxies. However they still prepared for total military confrontation with nuclear
arms, conventional armies and navies, military alliances – NATO, the Warsaw Pact or spies.
There were also new structures of militarism on both sides like military-industrial complex or
the national security state
1945–1953 → Initial stage
The Origins of the Cold War
, The Decline of Europe and Global Economic Relations
Fundamental contrasts between the visions of the United States and the Soviet Union
Cold war goals for the US:
- Promote open markets for US goods to prevent another depression
- Promote democracy throughout the world, especially in Asia and Africa
- Stop the spread of communism; “Domino Effect”
Views of the Soviet Threat
FDR on Eve of Cold War:
– Soviet hostility due to unfamiliarity with West, exclusion, lack of interaction
– He believed that cooperation, trust, good will can change Soviet behaviour
Kennan: Soviet hostility is internally generated, nature of system & leadership experience
– Gestures of good faith will be seen as weakness; policy of firmness & patience demanded
– Containment (the basic US strategy to fight in the cold war) as the foundation of policy
Cold war goals for the USSR:
- Create greater security for itself
❖ lost tens of millions of people in WWII and Stalin’s purges
❖ feared a strong Germany
- Establish defensible borders
- Encourage friendly governments on its borders
- Spread communism around the world
“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain
has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the
capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe.
Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest
and Sofia...
Iron curtain→ Iron Curtain, the political, military, and ideological
barrier erected by the Soviet Union after World War II to seal off
, itself and its dependent eastern and central European allies from open contact with the West
and other noncommunist areas.
Historiographic debate of the Cold War:
Historians commonly speak of three differing approaches to the study of the Cold War: "orthodox"
Main character energy
Winston Churchill
George F Kennan A British statesman, soldier,
American diplomat and Joseph Stalin Franklin J Roosevelt and writer who served as
historian. He was best American politician and Prime Minister of the United
The dictator of the lawyer who served as
known as an advocate of a Kingdom twice, from 1940
Soviet Union from the 32nd president of
policy of containment of to 1945 during the Second
1929 to 1953 the United States from
Soviet expansion during the World War, and again from
Cold War. 1933 until his death in 1951 to 1955.
1945.
accounts, "revisionism" and "post-revisionism".
The orthodox School: This theory believes that the cause of the war was Stalin’s expansionist
policy. Part of eastern Poland to the USSR, communist governments in Poland and other
Eastern European countries and the Berlin blockade.
The revisionist view: The cause was USA’s hard-line approach towards the USSR after the
war. The role of the power of big business and the military-industrial sector in pushing the US
government towards Cold War confrontation as a way of protecting the economic interests of
capitalism. The USA acted provocatively and ignored the USSR's security needs.
The post-revisionist school: Has sought to avoid blaming either side for breakdown in
relations and to approach the topic from a more objective standpoint. From that perspective, the
Cold War was not so much the responsibility of either side, but rather the result of predictable
tensions between two world powers that had been suspicious of one another for nearly a
century.
THE ATLANTIC CONFERENCE ABOARD THE USS AUGUSTA
President Roosevelt and PM Churchill met on August 9 and 10, 1941 in Newfoundland on the USS
Augusta. Their purpose was to discuss a postwar international system and to restore self-governing
countries. They drafted 8 common principles to support after the war but the allies didn’t believe that
the Soviet Union could hold off Hitler for very long. Great Britain therefore wanted the US to get
involved and this was also to protect the British colonies such as India and Egypt. This charter publicly
affirmed the sense of solidarity between the U.S. and Great Britain against Axis aggression.
