College of Education

School of Continuing and Distance Education2014/2015 – 2016/2017

POLI 212

Introduction to International

Politics

Session 9 – GREAT POWERS AND INTERNATIONAL CONFLICTS 2

Lecturer: Dr. Bossman E AsareContact Information: bossasare@gmail.com/beasare@ug.edu.gh

Session Overview

– OverviewIn the previous session, we laid emphasis on the generalexplanations for the causes of interstate wars and World War1. In this session we will look at World War 2 and the ColdWar. The discussions on World War 2 will focus on the originsof the war, the causes and the effects. Students willunderstand how the end of the war led to the Cold War whichcontinues shape the international system.The discussions on the Cold War center on the explanation ofthe Cold War, the major developments during the War, how itended and the effects of the war. It is important to emphasizethat unlike the other wars, the Cold war was not an actualcombat between the opposing countries. This will be madeclear in the slides and the video you will watch.

Slide 2

Session Outline

The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:

• Topic One: World War 2

• Topic Two: The Cold War

Slide 3

Reading List

• Chapter 3 of Asare (2016)

• chapter 4 of Kegley and Blanton (2010)

Slide 4

WORLD WAR 2Topic One

Slide 5

World war 2-Introduction

• Following the destructions of property and the many lives lost due toWorld War 1, many state actors in Europe and elsewhere noted thatWorld War 1 was the war to end all wars. Conversely, and perhaps tothe surprise of many people around the world, another war broke out.More importantly, what surprised many was that the war occurred at atime when the impact of World War 1 was still fresh in the minds ofseveral people.

• Though scholars talk about different starting dates for World War II, theconsensus is that it started from 1939 to 1945. Numerous studies haveblamed the emergence of the war on the policies of Adolf Hitler, theman who led Germany into the war. He became the Chancellor inJanuary 1933. Hitler led the government called the Third Reich. It isestimated that between 35 and 50 million people lost their lives due toWorld War II (Nye 2007:96). The war was fought between the Axispowers (Germany, Italy, and Japan and their allies) and the Alliedpowers (United Kingdom, France, Soviet Union, and the United Statesof America and their allies).

Slide 6

World war 2-Introduction (contd.)

• Soon after becoming the leader of his country, Hitler adopted expansionistpolicies. These policies were partly shaped by the harsher treatmentmeted out to Germany at the Versailles Treaty. Hitler or Nazy Germanytook steps to undermine all the provisions in the Versailles Treaty thatconstrained German military advancement, especially in the areas ofincreasing the numbers of the German army and using heavy armaments.

• A strong economy boosted Hitler’s superpower ambition. Germany hadthe biggest economy in Europe in 1939-40. According to Nau (2009:148),Germany’s share of European wealth in 1939-40 was 36 percent, whileBritain, France, and the Soviet Union share of wealth were 24 percent,nine (9) percent, and 28 percent, respectively.

• This was a clear indication that Hitler had the wherewithal to be thedominant actor in continental Europe. This encouraged Hitler to spend alot of money on defense at a time when none of the countries in Europecould match the strength of the German military.

Slide 7

The emergence of world war 2 (contd.)

• German expansionism began with the realization by Hitler and Germanpolicymakers that Germany would not fight in two front wars and would alsoprevent their potential and actual opponents from forming a coalition to balancethe military power of Germany. Balance of power seeks to prevent any countryfrom becoming a hegemon. Hegemon is a country capable of controlling all othercountries in the world and setting the international agenda. Hegemony isconsistent with hegemonic stability theory which argues that, for a stable globalsystem, it is important for one country to be a hegemon.

• In a balance of power system, none of the opposed coalitions want to attack theother because they know that the other country can equally launch similar, evenmore shocking, attacks. Because of this, some scholars have stated that balance ofpower systems tend to promote a more stable international system than whenthere are several levers of power. Hitler and his team did all these calculations andthey came to the conclusion that Germany would have to defeat France, Britain,and the Soviet Union one after the other. Primarily, Hitler wanted to avoid thethree countries forming a military coalition.

• Military coalition would mean the Soviet Union would fight from the east andBritain and France would fight from the west.

Slide 8

Emergence of World War 2 (contd.)

• Germany was militarily stronger than each of these countries, however, as a group,Hitler felt they would overcome the preponderance of the German military (theWehrmacht). At this time policymakers in Germany thought that a revived tripleentente would frustrate their efforts at becoming a hegemon in Europe andperhaps in the world.

• Hitler first unleashed the Wehrmacht on a number of minor powers in Europe.Both Hitler and Italy fought on the side of the fascists led by General FranciscoFranco in the Spanish civil war from 1936 to 1939. The Soviet Union supported thedemocratically elected, antifascist’s government during the civil war in Spain.Hitler succeeded in killing many civilians in Spain and also wiped out the Basquecity of Guernica (Nye 2007:99).

• In spite of the fact that the international community condemned the actions ofthe German chancellor; none of the allied powers actually did anything to deterHitler from further killings and expansion. Austria and Czechoslovakia were thenext countries to feel the militarism and imperial ambitions of Adolf Hitler. InMarch 1938, he annexed Austria after Chancellor Schuschnigg had called for aplebiscite on whether Austria should reunite with Germany or not.

Slide 9

Emergence of World war 2 (contd.)

• In the same manner, in September 1938 Hitler demanded that the ethnicGermans living in the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia reunite withGermany because their presence in Czechoslovakia is one of the travestiesof the Treaty of Versailles. The allied powers became uncomfortable withthis move.

• A meeting was convened in Munich (the same year) that was attended bythe leaders of France and Britain as well as Hitler. Although the Czechswere not invited to the meeting, the leaders of France and Britain agreedto give Hitler what he wanted (appeasement), hoping that this would puta stop to any superpower ambition by the German chancellor.

• Appeasement in international politics is when countries give in to thedemands of, or make concessions to, other countries hoping that whenthe latter is satisfied or happy, there will be no additional demands. TheMunich Agreement was then aimed at making concessions to Hitler withthe expectation that there would be no further annexation of othercountries. At this time Japan also invaded the People’s Republic of China in1937, while Italy annexed Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935 and Albania in 1939.

Slide 10

Emergence of World war 2 (contd.)

• Appeasement backfired when in 1939 Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, however.Fearing that Hitler would attack Poland, which he eventually did, France andBritain declared war on Germany. Hitler succeeded in penetrating the defense ofthe French in May 1940 and France fell, leaving only Britain and the Soviet Unionon his radar as real challengers to his imperial agenda. The victory over the Frenchinspired Hitler to take on the British. But Germany lost the air battle to the Britishfrom July to October 1940. Unable to defeat the British, Hitler launched anotherattack on the Soviet Union in June 1941.

• Japan also attacked Pearl Harbor (in the United States) in December 1941, andHitler also declared war on the United States. This encouraged the United States tojoin forces with Britain and the Soviet Union to fight the Germans and their allies.Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces had defeated China in 1895 aswell as Russia in 1905. They also took control of Manchuria (northeast China) andinvaded the rest of China in 1937, where they unleashed a severe militarycampaign on the Chinese people (Goldstein and Pevehouse 2007: 37).

• The United States involvement meant that Germany had to fight at two fronts-theSoviet Union to the east and the United States of America and Britain to the west.What Hitler feared came to past, and the Germans and their allies were summarilydefeated and decimated by the Allied Powers.

Slide 11

Causes of World War 2

• Just like World War 1, multiple explanations account for the emergence ofthe Second World War. Some studies have described the war as Hitler’swar, but this does not imply that other countries and events were notculpable. At the individual level, the bellicose or combative personality ofthe German leader makes him the likely person to be blamed for the war.

• Prior to becoming the chancellor of his country, Hitler had written twobooks that outlined his plans regarding German expansionism anddominance (Nye 2007). The strategies Hitler outlined have been discussedabove. Additionally, Hitler openly proclaimed that the Aryan race wassuperior and he unleashed virulent and dehumanizing attacks on Jews inorder to justify his Anti-Semitism.

• Anti-Semitism or Anti-Semitism means hatred, prejudice, anddiscrimination towards Jews. When this is taken to the extreme, it couldmean the persecution and killing of Jews. It applies to Jews both asindividuals and as a group.

Slide 12

Causes of World War 2 (contd.)

• At the state level, a number of reasons accounted for the outbreak of the war.First, military and power politics discussions took precedence over a number ofissues in continental Europe. The quest on the part of some countries, especiallythe Axis powers, to conquer the world was obvious. Thus, the Axis powers, led byGermany, took a number of steps to strengthen their military.

• The military discourses stimulated nationalism in Germany and Italy especially. TheGermans started invoking irredentism in their bid to regain the lost territories ofPoland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia (Kegley 2009: 99). According to Kegley (2009:99), irredentism is “a movement by an ethnic national group to recover control oflost territory by force so that the new state boundaries will no longer divide thegroup.”

• Along with nationalism came fascism in Germany and Italy. Fascism is a politicalideology that glorifies nationalism and the leadership of a dictator. The leaders ofboth Germany and Italy (Benito Mussolini) espoused this worldview (fascism) intheir attempt to control the world and promote their races.

• Moreover, the western powers or the countries that emerged victorious in WorldWar 1 (France, Britain, Soviet Union, and USA) failed to harmonize their foreignpolicies towards Germany and other Axis powers.

Slide 13

Causes of World War 2 (contd.)

• This enabled Germany to pursue certain policies without theknowledge of the Allied countries. For instance, British upper-classpersons felt that their policymakers should not enter into any treatywith communist Soviet Union.

• Similarly, the US policy of isolationism right after World War 1 madeit easier for Hitler to equip his military.

• As the only true superpower after World War 1, the US refused toaccept her role as the global leader. Isolationism implies that the USdecided not to be involved in the activities of continental Europe.

• Put differently, US policymakers felt that they should leave theEuropeans alone to do whatever they felt was right and that if theywanted to kill one another that would be their business, not the US.Germany and Japan thus filled the void left by the US.

Slide 14

Causes of World War 2 (contd.)

• Finally, the global level notes that the Great Depression of the 1930s affectedmany countries. Countries therefore decided to focus their attention on comingup with policies to put their economies on a path of growth. And, in the US,coupled with isolationism, policy actors in the federal government led by thepresident were concerned about expanding government activities in the area ofwelfare to address the apparent economic challenges. In 1936 when even thepresident of the US during the war, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, thought that thetime had come for the US to be involved in the affairs of Europe, domestic publicopinion was totally against that idea. It was at this period that Hitler became theleader of his country.

• Hitler and his allies were able to plan for the war. The harsh treatment meted outto Germany at the treaty of Versailles also played a significant role. Many Germanssaw the treaty as a ploy by the allied countries to deny them any chance ofbecoming a great power in the international system due to the provisions in thetreaty.

• In the same manner, the League of Nations failed as a liberal international regimeto regulate and harmonize the actions of countries. The United States absence inthe League meant that right from the beginning there was no hegemon to checkand punish the excesses of the states that made up the League.

Slide 15

Effects of World War 2

• World War II produced a number of stunning effects and most ofthem continue to shape the contemporary international system.First, the defeat of Germany and Japan by the Allied Powers led to anew international order under the leadership of the United States,Britain and the Soviet Union. The leaders of the Allied countriesheld meetings regarding how to construct an international systemthat would promote peace and cooperation among countries.

• There was the Yalta Conference in February 1945 and anothermeeting at Potsdam in July 1945. However, none of these meetingsyielded the expected results because each of the victors had certainobjectives different from that of other countries. Fundamentally,they failed to reach an agreement and their unity began todisintegrate (Kegley 2009) at a time when unity was critical to astable international system.

Slide 16

Effects of World War 2 (contd.)

• Secondly, the end of World War II led to the discussions that established theUnited Nations Organization and other intergovernmental organizations. Alliedpowers came up with a plan just like the beleaguered League of Nations topromote world peace and collaboration. Unlike the previous regime, the UN wassupported by US policymakers in both the executive and the Congress. The chapteron intergovernmental organizations examines and explains the relevance of theUN to the international system. World leaders also met at Bretton Woods, NewHampshire (USA), to discuss the formation of international financial and traderegimes.

• This led to the establishment of the International Bank for Reconstruction andDevelopment (now the World Bank), the IMF, and the General Agreement onTariffs and Trade (GATT now the World Trade Organization). These institutionswere designed to promote liberalism in relations between countries. In otherwords, the previous emphasis on power politics and might makes right was to giveway to a more liberal, interactive approach to addressing global issues. It isincontrovertible that these institutions continue to shape the contemporaryinternational political and economic system. For those of us from Ghana and otherdeveloping economies we see these institutions on regular basis influencing publicpolicies in certain key sectors of our economies.

Slide 17

Effects of World War 2 (contd.)

• Moreover, the war led to the Marshall Plan that transferred financial resourcesfrom the United States to Western Europe to enhance the latter’s economicfortunes following the destructions of the economies by the war. For three years,from 1948 to 1951, the United States supported Western European countries withfinancial support to boost their economies and promote development. Majorwestern European countries such as Germany and Britain got more money thansmaller economies like Iceland and Greece. Eastern European countries includingthe Soviet Union were added to the list of countries to benefit from the package,but under the leadership of the Soviet Union they rejected it.

• Besides, the end of the war saw the emergence of bipolarity in global politics.Before the war the polarity in the international system was multipolar due to theexistence of many centers of military power, such as the United States, the SovietUnion, France, Britain, and Germany. But with the defeat of the Axis Powers and abattered French and British military, the United States and the Soviet Unionbecame the two most powerful countries in the world. As explained in the firstchapter, bipolarity means there are only two centers of power in the globalsystem. This eventually led to the Cold War from 1949 to 1991.

Slide 18

Sample questions

• Why do some scholars describe world war 2 as Hitler’s war?

• Discuss the main effects of world war 2.

• Explain the causes of world war 2 from the perspective of the three levels of analysis.

Slide 19

THE COLD WARTopic Two

Slide 20

The Cold War-Introduction

• The Cold War was an ideological battle between the United States (liberaldemocracy and capitalism) and her allies and the Soviet Union (now Russia,communism and centrally-planned economy) and her allies. However, theprincipal actors were the United States and the Soviet Union.

• The war lasted 47 years; nonetheless, there was a long peace due to theabsence of actual war between the United States and the Soviet Union.Unlike the two previous wars, where there were actual combats leading tothe deaths of many people, the Cold War had much to do with ideas andhegemony in international politics. After World War II, the Soviet Unionbecame the most powerful country in both Europe and Northeast Asia.

• In Northeast Asia Japan had been decimated by the war and China was alsoinvolved in a vicious civil war. Similarly, in Europe, after the war, the Frencharmy was a pale shadow of her interwar years; the Germans were ignoredin discussions of both economic and military might; and the British werenot even in a position to provide support, both militarily and economically,to Greece and Turkey in order to prevent communists insurgents fromtaking over these countries.

• All these meant that the United States and the Soviet Union became thedominant players in global politics in a clearly defined bipolar world.

Slide 21

The Cold War-Introduction (contd.)

• Both the United States and the Soviet Union fought on the same side against NaziGermany. Why then did they engage in this ideological war? Different explanationshave been given. One of the compelling reasons is that both countries faced acommon threat in Germany, so they were not true allies like the United States andthe United Kingdom (that shared military ideas). In effect, both fought on thesame side because the enemy of my enemy is my friend (Shimko 2005).

• On the other hand, Mearsheimer (2001:322) has noted that United States’policymakers had every reason not to balance against the Soviets becauseRoosevelt, the US president during World War II, had made it clear at the YaltaConference that United States troops would not stay longer in Europe, andpolicymakers and citizens in general were also opposed to entangling alliances.

• Moreover, after fighting on the same side, United States’ leaders felt it would bedifficult, if not nearly impossible, to sell to the American people that the SovietUnion had now become an enemy and that the United States must balance againstthem (Mearsheimer 2001).

Slide 22

The Cold War-Introduction (contd.)

• Yet, signs that there would be problems between the two superpowers beganbefore the end of World War II when the United States informed the British aboutthe progress being made on her atomic bomb program known as the ManhattanProject. However, the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, was not informed about thisbecause President Roosevelt felt the program would be relevant for the post-waryears. Soviet Union leaders also refused to hold elections in some EasternEuropean countries after promising that they would support free and fair electionsin these countries.

• Stalin rather supported the ascendency of friendly or communists governments inEastern Europe to protect the security of the Soviet Union (Shimko 2005; Nye2007). In Poland, for instance, the Soviet Union installed a puppet government inWarsaw that was tightly controlled by the Soviet leadership (Nau 2009:174-175).

• The United States’ foreign policy after World War II was a radical departure fromthe isolation and unilateral policies before the war.

Slide 23

The Cold War-Introduction (contd.)

• At this time, there was a consensus among leading policy actors that United Stateshad to be deeply involved in the affairs of Europe in order to promote her securityand avoid another major war. This resulted in the United States entering intomilitary alliances with like-minded states in Europe and the Pacific, though most ofthese alliances were hierarchical with the United States dictating the terms (Lake1999: 128). In spite of this consensus, there were still elements in the UnitedStates government that believed that deep involvement in European politics wouldbe unnecessary since it was unlikely that the United States would be attacked byany single country or combination of countries (Lake 1999).

• Harry Truman, the man who took over as president of the United States, followingthe death of Franklin Roosevelt, showcased what became known as the TrumanDoctrine in a speech delivered to the United States Congress in March 1947.Truman noted in the speech that the United States must do everything possible toprotect free people everywhere in the world who are facing the threats ofcommunism.

Slide 24

The Cold War

• In both Turkey and Greece communists’ forces had made efforts to topple theirchummy democratic governments. However, their staunchest ally, Great Britain,had been devastated by World War II and she was no longer in a position to assistwith security in the eastern Mediterranean. Truman and his foreign policy advisers,fearing that communist forces supported by the Soviet Union, would overrunthese countries, got the support of the United States Congress to provideassistance to Turkey and Greece. Countries such as France and Italy had in theircoalition governments communists’ parties and the fear was that all thesecountries could join forces with the Soviet Union.

• All these led to the United States foreign policy of Containment, where she soughtto actively resist the expansion of communism around the world by countering theactivities of the Soviet Union. Western policy makers were concerned that oncecountries embraced communism, their neighbors would also follow suit and thismeant something had to be done to prevent the spread of communism in the firstplace. The Marshall Plan also supported the strengthening of Western Europeaneconomies and this made them more receptive to democratic capitalism. Broadly,the Marshall Plan envisioned that an integrated Western Europe would spureconomic development and make the European states receptive to democracy andcapitalism.

Slide 25

The Cold War (contd.)

• The United States took steps to realize her deep involvement in Europeanaffairs by supporting the setting up of the military and security allianceknown as NATO. United States policymakers became alarmed when in1948 a communist-led coup overthrew the democratically electedgovernment of Czechoslovakia.

• Right after this event, the Soviet Union ordered Finland to sign afriendship agreement ostensibly to ensure that the former would exercisecontrol over the latter. This troubled Norway and their policymakers drewthe attention of the United States and the United Kingdom that theywould likely face a similar demand from the Soviet Union. The Norwegianswanted to be certain they would get military support from the UnitedStates and the United Kingdom to resist any Soviet intrusion in theirdomestic affairs.

Slide 26

The Cold War (contd.)

• With a menacing Soviet Union seeking to extend her influence in Europeand perhaps globally, the United States decided to join forces with friendlycountries. The preliminary discussion for this security regime wasattended by policymakers from Canada, United Kingdom, and UnitedStates at Washington, DC in March 1948.

• Later officials from France, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Canada,Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United States met again in Washington,DC for the final discussions that led to the formation of NATO. By July 211949 NATO had become a security regime to balance against any Sovietambitions at controlling Europe.

• It was this same time that the Soviet Union leader Stalin blockaded Berlin.The Berlin blockade, which was the first physical confrontation of the ColdWar, had the ultimate purpose of preventing the Allied Powers fromdelivering supplies in Berlin by blocking the land routes to the city (Lake1999; Nye 2007; Nau 2009).

Slide 27

Major developments during the Cold War

The Korean, Vietnam and Afghanistan Wars• The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, the Vietnam War in 1955, and the

Afghanistan War in 1979 were some of the key events during the Cold War. TheKorean War ended in 1953. The communist government in North Korea, supportedby the Soviet Union, invaded South Korea in June 1950 in what ended up killingseveral thousands of people (most of them being civilians). China also joined thewar on the side of the North Koreans. By 1950, however, the United Statesappeared to have succeeded with the policy of containment.

• The Korean War became a test case for the United States and her allies todemonstrate that they were equal to the challenges posed by the Soviet Union.The Truman administration responded through the United Nations to send UnitedStates troops to support the South Koreans.

• The United States had to keep many soldiers in Korea and this dramaticallyincreased the defense budget. United States’ intervention in the Korean Warbecame the first time her troops fought alongside their allied partners under theumbrella of NATO and the United Nations. Importantly, policymakers in the UnitedStates envisioned only limited participation in the domestic affairs of othercountries with the formation of NATO; however, the Korean War reversed this viewin profound ways as troops had to be stationed in Korea.

Slide 28

Major developments during the Cold War (contd.)

• This is because in the discussions that led to the formation of the NATO andsupported by the United States Congress, the Secretary of State, Dean Acheson,denied any attempts to integrate the United States military into a unified militarycommand (Lake 1999: 139). I must emphasize that NATO is still very active with 28member countries. Recently, there were several thousands of NATO troopsstationed in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban and other alleged terrorist groups.The Soviet Union responded to the formation of NATO by leading her allies to formthe Warsaw Pact, which collapsed following the end of the Cold War.

• By the end of the war, casualties on the side of the United States alone hadexceeded 50,000. Other foreign soldiers also died alongside the soldiers of bothNorth Korea and South Korea. The Korean War escalated the doctrine ofcontainment into a global doctrine. This saw the United States and her alliesworking assiduously to contain the spread of communism in especially Third Worldcountries.

• The granting of, and fighting for, independence led to the struggle for power inmany Third World countries and both the Soviet Union and the United Statesjockeyed for influence in these countries. A number of these struggles werebetween communists-leaning nationalists and those opposed to communism butnot necessarily committed to democracy.

Slide 29

Major developments during the Cold War (contd.)

• At times, too, proxy wars became the norm as this saw the two superpowerssupporting and advising opposing factions in civil wars in Third World countries(Goldstein and Pevehouse 2007). Proxy wars, according to Nau (2009:175) were“conflicts sponsored by superpowers elsewhere-in third-party states or throughterrorists- as a substitute for direct conflict.”

• Not long after the end of the Korean War, the United States intervened in theVietnam War on the side of the South Vietnamese to prevent the taking over ofthe entire country by communist North Vietnam. Initially the United Statesstrategy was to give financial aid and military advice to the South Vietnamese in aneffort to avoid sending troops (Shimko 2005).

• Nonetheless, the United States soon found herself in the midst of a costly war foralmost two decades, from 1955 to 1973. With no end in sight even after UnitedStates policymakers had predicted victory over the North Vietnamese, domesticopposition to the war intensified and this led to several demonstrations across thecountry.

Slide 30

Major developments during the Cold War (contd.)

• The US casualties exceeded that of the Korean War, and one can only imagine thefinancial costs for a war that dragged for almost 20 years, as well as theVietnamese casualties.

• The North Vietnamese ceased Hanoi (the capital of South Vietnam) in 1975 andthe United States and the South Vietnamese were defeated.

• The Soviet Union also invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to fight FundamentalistMuslims, called the Mujahidin. The US supported the Mujahidin. The Soviet Unionfaced a protracted warfare that ended with the death of many Soviet Uniontroops, as well as the money spent in prosecuting the war.

• The Fundamentalists succeeded in defeating the Soviet Union and the latter leftAfghanistan in 1989 at a time when they were facing a number of domesticchallenges that eventually led to the end of the Cold War. In effect, in bothVietnam and Afghanistan the two great powers were annihilated, and this causedpolicymakers in both countries to reconsider intervening militarily in the affairs ofother countries.

Slide 31

The Cuban Missile Crisis

• The Cuban missile crisis was perhaps the single event that could have directly ledto war between the two great powers during the Cold War. The crisis started inOctober 1962 when the Soviet Union moved nuclear-armed ballistic missiles intoCuba with the main objective of protecting Fidel Castro and Cuba from a probableUnited States invasion. In 1959 communists forces led by Fidel Castro overthrewthe United States-backed Cuban dictator.

• Several attempts were made by the United States to assassinate Castro bysupporting anticommunists’ forces in Cuba. In one of the most famous efforts tokill Castro, known as the Bay of Pigs invasion, in 1961, the United States supportedanti-Castro exiles to oust the communist leader, but the same United States failedto provide a last minute critical air support to either kill or remove Castro fromoffice. This ensured that Castro survived the invasion (Nau 2009). Knowing that theUnited States wanted to overthrow a friendly communist regime, the Soviet leaderNikita Khrushchev decided to support Cuba against any attack from anticommunistgroups and the United States.

• Soviet Union policymakers figured out that if the United States could have missilesinstalled in Turkey and other European countries to protect these countries andtheir interests, why would the Soviet Union be hesitant to move missiles into Cubain defense of communism?

Slide 32

The Cuban Missile Crisis (contd.)

• The most enervative effect of the missiles was that they were capable of reachingseveral big cities in the United States. This alarmed President Kennedy, who methis foreign and defense policy experts, to come up with strategies to prevent anySoviet Union attempts to launch attacks on the United States from Cuba. TheUnited States president (Kennedy) ordered the quarantine of all Soviet Union shipsgoing to Cuba in an effort to deter (deterrence) the Soviet Union from launchingattacks on the United States.

• Deterrence in international politics is a strategy of dissuading or discouraginganother country from carrying out certain attacks. President Kennedy furtherstated that the Soviet Union should remove the missiles in Cuba or else the UnitedStates would respond by attacking Cuba. On October 27 1962 President Kennedyindicated that the United States would launch air strikes on October 30. At thetime, Generals in the Soviet Union military wanted to use the missiles to attackAmerican ships that quarantined the Soviet ships going to Cuba.

• However, on October 28 1962, the Soviet Union reversed course and the Cubanmissile crisis became history. The Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, yielded to theconcerns of the United States by stopping the deployment of weapons to Cubaand agreeing to remove the weapons in Cuba (Nau 2009: 179-180).

Slide 33

The Cuban Missile Crisis (contd.)

• Some have noted that the United States emerged victorious in the crisis, andothers have also maintained that none of the countries emerged victorious. TheUnited States obviously had more nuclear weapons than the Soviet Union,portending that American use of missiles during the Cuban missiles crisis wouldhave been more devastating than that of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, I mustpoint out that because the Soviet weapons/missiles were capable of reachingmany big cities in the United States, Americans would have also felt the impact ofthe use of the missiles. Primarily, when you are dealing with nuclear weapons, it isjust not about how many weapons this country has or those countries have. It israther about how just one nuclear weapon can kill many innocent civilians.

• This was just what the United States wanted to avoid in the Cuban missile crisis. Indemocracies because the power belongs to the people, any Soviet Union attackson the United States would have made the leadership in the United States veryunpopular for not deterring the Soviet Union from using the missiles. Right afterthe Cuban missile crisis, both countries moderated their policies towards eachother. There was lessening of tensions between the two countries and PresidentKennedy called for the strengthening of trade between them. This strategy isknown as détente in international relations. It implies the relaxation of tensionsbetween countries to avoid any possibility of war between them.

Slide 34

The end of the Cold War

• A number of reasons accounted for the end of the Cold War. Détente worked wellin the 1960s and most of the 1970s until the Soviet Union entered Afghanistan tofight the Mujahidin. This ensured that there were relaxed tensions between thetwo superpowers. In the 1970s, the United States experienced a lot of challenges,both economically and politically. The Vietnam War took a toll on the country withthe many demonstrations and the defeat by the communists.

• The 1970s also saw economic challenges, racial tensions, and the Watergatescandal that called into question the integrity of then president Richard Nixon forthe highest office in the country. The 1970s similarly witnessed the Soviet Unionsending troops beyond Europe to assert supremacy in the balance of power.However, the emergence of Ronald Reagan following the 1980 presidentialelections that the incumbent, Jimmy Carter, lost partly changed the balance ofpower in the favor of the United States.

• Reagan came up with strategies to strengthen the economy and the military.Consequently, this led to an increase in the defense budget and a strong economycapable of supporting an expanded military. Largely driven by the tenets ofRealism or power politics, the Reagan administration did whatever was necessaryto cement the United States’ position as the most influential military power in theglobal system.

Slide 35

The end of the Cold War (contd.)

• The Soviet Union also faced economic hardships in the 1980s and three presidentsdied in early to mid-1980s. They were Leonid Brezhnev in 1982, Yuri Andropov in1984, and Konstantin Chernenkoin 1985. These deaths compromised the stabilityof policies in profound ways. Leonid Brezhnev was in office for 18 years and hisleadership was marked by commitment to political stability at the expense of otherimportant policies.

• As a result, his tenure of office was characterized by lack of innovation ineconomic policies. This led to economic stagnation in the country (Ethridge andHandelman 2008: 350).

• The two leaders after Brezhnev were too old to make an impact on the economicfront. Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader in 1985 and he indicated clearly thathe would reform communism. In a meeting with the Politburo (The CommunistParty of the Soviet Union’s Leadership Council) Gorbachev said that “Our goal is toprevent the next round of the arms race. If we do not accomplish it, the threat tous will only grow. We will be pulled into another round of the arms race that isbeyond our capabilities, and we will lose, because we are already at the limits ofour capabilities. Moreover, we can expect that Japan and the FRG (West Germany)could very soon join the American potential . . . If the new round begins, thepressure on our economy will be unbelievable.”

Slide 36

The end of the Cold War (contd.)

• Gorbachev came on the scene as a leader who wanted changes in the Sovietsociety. He introduced two ideas, perestroika and glasnost. Perestroika meanseconomic restructuring and glasnost means openness and transparency in stateaffairs.

• With perestroika, Gorbachev largely embraced liberal ideals of economicmanagement by restructuring Soviet institutions to make them much responsiveto the demands of the people. In the 1980s, the centrally-planned economy of theSoviet Union was not in a position to provide the basic needs the people enjoyedprior to the 1980s.

• With many middle class people and several secondary and university graduates inthe country in the 1980s, many began to question the inefficiencies associatedwith the state providing basic services, such as electricity and housing. Thus,restructuring was to ensure that state institutions function efficiently andconsistent with public management in many Western societies, as well asembracing the private sector as a key partner in economic development.

• Glasnost aimed at freedom of expression including media freedom so that peoplecould offer constructive criticisms to government policies and programs.Opposition political parties were accredited to operate in the country after severalyears.

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The end of the Cold War (contd.)

The privileges and prestige enjoyed by certain groups in the country because oftheir association with the Communist Party were somewhat broken. A new kind offoreign policy was championed that was totally different from the bellicose policiesof the 1950s to the 1970s. Both efforts at reforming the society receivedcommendation from Western countries including both the United States and theUnited Kingdom.

• Although Gorbachev was not able to transform the economy to meet theexpectations of the masses in his country, internationally, his popularity rocketedand Cold War rivals began to see him as a friend. The economic hardshipsencouraged the Soviet Union to look inward. They were no longer in a position tosupport other communist countries such as East Germany and those in thedeveloping world. In 1989 the Berlin Wall, which divided East and West Germany,fell and the East Germans reunited with the West Germans to become Germany.

• Similarly, in 1991 the Soviet Union dissolved into different independent states. Thestates that made up the Soviet Union were 15. With the dissolution, each of thembecame independent. The 15 states are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia,Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan,Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Russia assumed all the internationalobligations of the Soviet Union, including her debts and assets.

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Effects of the Cold War

• The end of the Cold War led to the demise of bipolarity in the international systemand the emergence of unipolarity. The disintegration of the Soviet Union intoindependent states in 1991 ushered in the United States as the hegemon in theglobal system.

• The hegemonic status of the United States right after World War II was never indoubt, however. But with a Soviet Union clearly competing for supremacy, manyobservers felt it would be premature to crown the United States as the hegemonin international relations during the Cold War. By unipolarity, the post-Cold Warinternational system revolves around the United States. Without a doubt, mostintergovernmental organizations are active in the global system because of thefinancial and other contributions of the United States. Unipolarity or hegemoncomes with a lot of responsibilities.

• Other countries usually expect hegemons to provide certain things that will benefitthem. This is partly why many rich countries look to the leadership of the UnitedStates in addressing several global challenges, such as HIV/AIDS, terrorism, andclimate change. Now, almost all countries follow developments, both political andeconomic, in the United States.

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Effects of the Cold War (contd.)

• The reason is that most things that happen in the United States haveimplications for the global system. For those of us from Africa and otherdeveloping countries, we know that whenever the United States economyis doing well, our economies will likely benefit partly due to theremittances and economic assistance from the United States’ government.

• The Mexican economy, for example, gets morethan 10 billion US dollarsthrough remittances annually mostly from Mexicans living and working inthe United States.

• Scholars in the contemporary international system have noted that thoughthe United States is certainly the superpower in the world, other countriesare also close in discussions of superpower status. They have frequentlycited China as the country likely to surpass the United States in terms ofinfluence in both economic and military areas.

• China is right there in the discussions but it will surely take some timebefore she will reach United States’ level of economic development andmilitary might.

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Effects of the Cold War (contd.)

• Another effect of the Cold War has to do with the End of History thesischampioned by Francis Fukuyama (1992).

• According to Fukuyama, with the end of the Cold War and the defeat ofthe Soviet Union, “an end-point in the ideological debate about the bestform of government and economy had been reached, with liberalcapitalism and democracy prevailing throughout the world without seriouscompetition from advocates of either communism or autocracy” (Kegley2009: 108).

• Broadly, scholars of international relations agree that the end of the ColdWar signaled the demise of communism as a form of government andcentral planning as a form of economic management.

• Keohane and Nye (2001) have also noted that “Liberalism seemed to havetriumphed-not merely capitalism but democracy and the rule of law, asrepresented in the West, and particularly in the United States.”

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Sample questions

• Distinguish between bipolarity and unipolarity.

• Discuss some of the major events during the coldwar.

• What roles did Ronald Reagan and MikhailGorbachev play to end the cold war?

• What is the End of History thesis?

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Conclusion of Session Nine

• In this session, you have been introduced to World War 2 and the Cold War. I believe now you are familiar with the effects of the Cold War and World War 2.

• Now students should be in a position to explain to others the impact of these major conflicts in the international system.

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References

• Mearsheimer, John (2001) The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. W.W.Norton and Company: New York and London.

• Nau, Henry (2009) Perspectives on International Relations: Power,Institutions, and Ideas (2nd Edition), CQ Press: Washington, D.C.

• Nye, Joseph Jr. (2007) Understanding International Conflicts: AnIntroduction to Theory and History, Pearson Longman, New York.

• Bossman E. Asare, 2016. International Politics: The Beginner’s Guide-Updated and Expanded, Digibooks.

• Charles W. Kegley Jr. and Shannon L. Blanton, 2010. World Politics:Trend and Transformation, Wadsworth: Cengage Learning.

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