The Collapse of the Soviet Union and Its Impact On
Transcript of The Collapse of the Soviet Union and Its Impact On
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INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS
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THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION AND ITS IMPACT ON
ARAB WORLD
Dr. Walid Al Shunnaq
Assistant Professor
Princess Alia University College
Al Balqa Applied University
Jordan
Abstract
This paper focus on collapse of the Soviet Union and its impact on Arab World. It also
contains literature review related to collapse of the Soviet Union. Conclusion are also
drawn on the basis of literature.
Keywords: Collapse ; Soviet Union ; Impact ; Arab World
Introduction
The effects of the fall down of the USSR were felt throughout the world in many
aspects of peoples day to day life but it also impacted extremely upon Western countries
foreign policies in ways such as; security spending in key countries such as the USA went
down in certain areas, the power vacuum left America as efficiently the police of the
world and also because a huge threat had been erased, many countries warmed up to
former enemies.
The collapse of the Soviet Union showed the weaknesses in socialism and how it is
essentially flawed as its principles go against human nature. This weakness in the
communist leading system made the rest of the world identify the same weaknesses
applied to China and made the Chinese seem less impressive. This feeling of dominance
felt by the West (mainly in America) can be seen through the unexpected drop in tensions
between the west and China and how the west's approach to China became designate less
hard-line and almost accepted them as friends. Trade was initiated and the successes of
such can be seen even today and this allowance by both the western governments and the
Chinese government to allow each other's products to enter their country even with the
risk of spreading different ideological views shows just how small they thought the risk
imposed by China was. This massive shift in world opinion and so inevitably in
democracies, government foreign policies shows the intercontinental impact of the
collapse of the USSR.
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Over all, the change in foreign policy for western countries, especially America was
huge. The collapse of the USSR was probably the biggest event in the second half of the
20th century and political change from it was inevitable. Its impact on western countries
foreign policy therefore should not be underestimated as its affects are still seen today in
places such as Iraq, as the Americans want to limit Nuclear weapons to reduce world
tension. The after-effects of such a catastrophic change in the world political climate is
sure to be felt for decades to come as it left, in my opinion, only one real super power.
(Alex, Yi. 2007)
Arab Spring
With the events of the Arab Spring, now is a good time to take stock of some lessons
learned from 20 years of efforts to bring better human rights protections to former Soviet
Union countries. Were our assumptions faulty? What could be done better, or differently,
to promote human rights during tectonic societal shifts? Does the exercise have relevance
beyond the region, particularly given the upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa?
The differences between 1991 and the 2011 Arab uprisings are vast, of course. But my
20 years at Human Rights Watch have given me a few ideas about what has to happen
after the revolution to make change stick.(Denber, R. 2012)
The only thing the Arab Spring and the end of the USSR have in common is that they
happened to involve large crowds," said Boris Kagarlitsky, a sociologist and former
Soviet dissident who was involved in the anti-Soviet protests. "It's like comparing a
political rally with a football match, or the French Revolution with a rock festival - not
particularly productive."
While the Arab uprisings are a genuinely popular movement, the revolution in the USSR
was carried out by the elites themselves, said Kagarlitsky. What is more, most of the mass
participation had ended well before the August coup. "Despite the collapse of the ruling
Communist party, no real revolution occurred in Russia in 1991," noted historian Stephen
Cohen in a 1993 article for The Nation. The following year, only seven per cent of
Russian respondents told a Levada poll that the fall of the USSR was a victory of
democracy, with 53 per cent seeing it as "simply the outcome of a battle for power within
the country's leadership". (Nikitin, V. 2011)
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Peace Process in Arab World
Two events of cosmic significance enabled America to revive what had
euphemistically come to be called the Middle East peace process: the end of the Cold
War and the end of the hot war in the Gulf. The collapse of the Soviet Union as a
superpower orphaned Moscow's former military clients - Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and
the radical Palestinian factions - and pulled the rug from underneath the Arab rejection
front that always opposed any peace settlement with Israel. Without Soviet arms supplies
and diplomatic backing, there was little the Arab radicals could do except sulk in their
tents. The collapse of the Soviet empire also meant that America no longer had to
contend with a credible rival in the Middle East. Soviet-American competition was
replaced by Soviet-American cooperation, with America as the dominant power and the
Soviet Union reduced almost to the level of an assistant. Once the Cold War ended, the
Middle East naturally ceased to be an arena for waging the Cold War. The ending of the
global contest between the two principal protagonists thus, made possible, or at least
conceivable, the ending of the conflict between the Arabs and the Israelis.
The Gulf War showed the extent to which the ground rules had changed following the
end of the Cold War. The scenario that actually unfolded following Iraq's invasion of
Kuwait would have been utterly inconceivable under conditions of intense Soviet-
American competitiveness. Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War re-cast inter-Arab relations,
dealing a further blow to the rejection front. Syria, once the standard-bearer of Arab
rejectionist's and Moscow's closest Arab ally, joined in the American-led coalition against
Iraq. The moderate, pro-American Saudi-Egyptian axis became more powerful within the
Arab world and more assertive in pushing for a strong American role. For all the Arab
members, the hastily assembled alliance with America against the Iraqi dictator now held
longer-term attractions. The war-time alliance laid the foundations for a peace-time
alliance. Having followed America's lead in war, the Arabs were more willing than ever
before to follow her lead in peace? (Shlaim, A.1992)
The Islamic nations of the world had considerable exposure during the Cold War to
Soviet revolutionary warfare doctrine, which was standard curriculum material for any
students sent to Soviet and other Warsaw Pact nation universities to gain free
undergraduate and postgraduate education. Suffice to say, classics like Lenin's
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Gosudarstvo i Revolutsia (The State and the Revolution) were compulsory reading. To
this pool of sociopathic knowledge infused across Islamic nations must also be added the
extensive training in insurgency techniques provided by US and UK special forces and
intelligence instructors during the 1980s Afghan war of liberation against the Soviets.
Therefore the technique of destabilising governments and political institutions by
sustained insurgency is well understood across the Islamic world, and considerable study
material especially of Soviet origin remains available.
The connections between Nazism and Arab fascism were further reinforced as some
Nazi war criminals sought refuge after the war. The best documented instance is that of
SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Alois Brunner, former commandant of the Drancy concentration
camp in Paris, who eventually settled in Syria during the 1950s. There are claims that in
total several hundred former SS and Gestapo officers eventually found new homes in the
Arab world, these including Gestapo officer Joachim Däumling, SS Ober-Gruppenfuhrer
Oskar Dirlewanger, SS Gruppenfuhrer Leopold Gleim, and SS Ober-Gruppenfuhrer
Heinrich Selimann.
Given the volume of publications which currently exist, connecting modern Islamo-
fascism to the NSDAP regime of the 1930s, and the well documented activities of al
Husseini in Nazi occupied Europe, the evidence that modern Islamo-fascism has its
primary ideological and doctrinal roots in twentieth century Nazism is overwhelming.
Apologists for Islamo-fascism and 'political Islam' will no doubt dismiss this material as
'Zionist propaganda', but whether we are prepared to accept or reject such historical
claims, the nearly identical ideological and doctrinal models used by the Nazis and
modern Islamofascists cannot be explained away so easily. Nor is the adoption of Nazi
symbology such as the straight arm salute used by Hezbollah, or the wide distribution by
Islamo-fascists of anti-semitic tracts such as the “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, a
favourite of Goebbels' propagandists. There are simply too many threads connecting the
two ideologies to be dismissed easily.
World War Two may well be sixty years behind us, but it is clear that the poison which
almost destroyed the world's democracies then is still alive and well
today.(Kopp,C.,2007)
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Conclusion
When the Soviet Union Collapsed, the huge power vacuum created around the world
was mainly filled by the heads of states seizing power of their own country, this was
encouraged by the USA who had not officially changed their stance on this matter since
President Woodrow Wilson's fourteen points outlined a countries right to govern itself.
This approach to the management of world order greatly lessened the burden on America
who had effectively become the world Police. Although it did leave many separatist
groups in certain countries eager for Independence, it also paved the way for peace in key
areas around the world such as the Middle East. During the Cold War, the USSR had
backed the Arab nations and supplied them with arms to fight Israel who were being
backed by the USA. When the USSR collapsed the Arab nations became much less
aggressive in their stance against Israel as they realized that America would not let them
destroy Israel. This loss in confidence by the Arab nations can be seen through such
events as the signing of peace treaties between Israel and Egypt as well as the reduction in
state sponsored anti-Semitic terrorism. This shows a new era of peace
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References
(Alex, Y. (2007). The global significance and worldwide effects of the collapse of the
USSR. http://www.helium.com/items/695620-the-global-significance-and-worldwide-
effects-of-the-collapse-of-the-ussr. Retrieved on April 12, 2012
Denber,R. (2012) The Soviet Fall and the Arab Spring. World Policy Institute, January 10,
2012.
Shlaim, A. (1992) When Bush Comes to Shove: America and the Arab-Israeli Peace Process.
The Oxford International Review, 3:2, 1992, 2-6.
Kopp, C., (2007) Hitler's Legacy, Modern Islamo-fascism and its Nazi Origins.First
published in Defence Today, Vol.6 No.1
April/May 2007 Text, Line Art © 2007, 2008 Carlo Kopp)
Nikitin, V,.(2011) (Did the Russians write the script for the Arab Spring?
http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/did-the-russians-write-the-script-for-
the-arab-spring#page1.
Retrieved on April 2012