Cold War and the Postwar Order
The Cold War was the global rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1991 that structured international politics for nearly half a century.
Definition
The period of geopolitical, ideological, and military rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies from the end of the Second World War to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Scope
This topic examines the Cold War and the postwar international order: the breakdown of the wartime alliance, the division of Europe and the world into rival blocs, the nuclear arms race, proxy conflicts across the decolonizing 'Third World', and the building of new institutions such as the United Nations and the Bretton Woods system. It surveys orthodox, revisionist, and post-revisionist historiography and the global turn that has reframed the Cold War beyond a US-Soviet duel.
Core questions
- What caused the Cold War and who, if anyone, was responsible for its onset?
- How did nuclear weapons shape strategy and the avoidance of direct war?
- How did the Cold War play out in the decolonizing world?
- How was the postwar international order constructed and maintained?
Key concepts
- bipolarity
- containment
- nuclear deterrence
- proxy war
- the postwar settlement
Key theories
- Ideology and the role of belief
- John Lewis Gaddis emphasized the ideological and moral dimensions of the conflict, arguing that ideas and leadership, especially the contrast between freedom and Soviet communism, were central to its course and end.
- The global Cold War
- Odd Arne Westad argued that the Cold War's most consequential battles were fought in the Third World, where superpower intervention intersected with decolonization to shape the contemporary global order.
History
The wartime alliance collapsed after 1945 into a confrontation that divided Europe and produced crises from Berlin to Cuba, proxy wars in Korea, Vietnam, and elsewhere, and a nuclear arms race. The opening of archives after 1991 transformed the field, while the 'global Cold War' approach of Westad and others recentered the decolonizing world.
Debates
- Origins and responsibility
- Historians have long debated whether the United States, the Soviet Union, or mutual misperception bears responsibility for the Cold War, moving through orthodox, revisionist, and post-revisionist phases.
- Bipolar versus global frameworks
- Scholars dispute whether the Cold War is best understood as a superpower duel or as a global phenomenon entangled with decolonization, as Westad argues.
Key figures
- John Lewis Gaddis
- Odd Arne Westad
- Melvyn Leffler
- Tony Judt
- Vladislav Zubok
Related topics
Seminal works
- gaddis2005
- westad2005
- judt2005b
Frequently asked questions
- Why is it called a 'cold' war?
- Because the United States and Soviet Union never fought each other directly in open 'hot' war, instead competing through arms races, ideology, proxy conflicts, and diplomacy under the shadow of nuclear weapons.
- When did the Cold War end?
- It is generally dated to end with the revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, though historians debate the causes and turning points of its conclusion.