HIST 410N WEEK 7: BRAVE NEW WORLD DISCUSSION
HIST 410N WEEK 7: BRAVE NEW WORLD DISCUSSION
HIST 410N WEEK 7: BRAVE NEW WORLD DISCUSSION – So…the Cold War is over. Time to do a victory lap and celebrate the primacy of American power. But the celebration seemed short-lived, as there were plenty of other concerns. Nothing is as it should be. Our adversaries are now our allies, and our allies are now competitors. The end of the Cold War knocked down the Iron Curtain, but it also destroyed conventional economic patterns. Is the end of the Cold War proving to be good for world peace, but not so good for world business?
So the Cold War is over…why hasn’t the United States been able to celebrate nearly 40 years of intense conflict with the Soviet Union? What lies ahead?
HIST 410N WEEK 7: BRAVE NEW WORLD DISCUSSION SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT
The Cold War had many effects on society, both today and in the past. In Russia, military spending was cut dramatically and quickly. The effects of this were very large, seeing as the military-industrial sector had previously employed one of every five Soviet adults and its dismantling left hundreds of millions throughout the former Soviet Union unemployed. The Cold War became a dominant influence on many aspects of American society for much of the second half of the 20th century. It increased rapidly due to antagonist values between the United States, representing capitalism and democracy, and the Soviet Union, representing communism and authoritarianism. Being the two dominant world powers after WWII, contention between the Americans and Soviets became a global conflict. The Cold War differed from most wars in that it was as much of a propaganda war as a war with military engagements. The Korean and Vietnam Wars are important examples of military intervention by the Americans in the name of stopping communist expansionism. However, these wars did not have the decades long impact on American domestic and foreign policy that the cultural, political, and economic battles of the Cold War had.
Relations between the Soviet Union and the United States were driven by a complex interplay of ideological, political, and economic factors, which led to shifts between cautious cooperation and often bitter superpower rivalry over the years. The distinct differences in the political systems of the two countries often prevented them from reaching a mutual understanding on key policy issues and even, as in the case of the Cuban missile crisis, brought them to the brink of war.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!