End of the Cold War Essay Example

End of the Cold War

End of the Cold War

The completion of the Cold War conveyed a lot of communism between the Soviet Union and the Americans. Hence, many factors led to the end of the Cold War. Other than the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Cold War ended due to reforms such as Gorbachev’s developments and the USSR economy. The fall of the Cold War brought more ideological development that resulted to globalization (English, 2017, pg. 80).

Mikhail Gorbachev played a big part as a cause of the end of Cold War. His main intentions were to change the concept of communism rather than interchange it. Under his rule, Gorbachev introduced the perestroika and glasnost programs to individuals. Perestroika meant ‘restructuring’ while glasnost represented ‘openness.’ The two programs were introduced to help change the economic practices of the Soviet Union. Additionally, the programs also resulted in changing the international and internal affairs. The reforms were able to eradicate many of the communist governments across the Eastern Europe. The termination of the communist parties led to an end of the Cold War (Schlaepfer, 2014, pg. 90).

Moreover, freeing of nuclear weapons brought an end to the Cold War. Both the US and USSR restricted the development of nuclear weapons to the super power countries. Hence, it led to the end of the Cold War since no nuclear weapons were being created (Andonova et al., 2014, N.p.). This factor caused the limited production of nuclear weapons that were to be used in the Cold War. There were also limited testing of nuclear weapons and gadgets. In the year 1987, the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was signed. The treaty was between Reagan and Gorbachev that stated all class of weapons should be eliminated (Wilson, 2014, N.p.). Being the first passed control act of arms, it asserted that nuclear weapons should be reduced rather than restricted.

Lack of enough supplies of food, shelter, and clothing resulted to an end of the Cold War. Individuals felt that the War would endanger the economy of many countries. The economy of many countries was at stake due to the Cold War (Baylis et al., 2017, N.p.). This is because more shelter, food, and clothing supplies were required for the continuation of the war. Therefore, the War soldiers could not go on fighting without food and clothing supplies. In this case, most of the soldiers were left in adverse conditions based on their health due to lack of food and shelter (Cox, 2017, pg. 80).

More than a million people declared themselves a ‘nuclear free zone.’ This factor highly contributed to the end of the Cold War. By people declaring themselves as a nuclear free zone, it meant that they did not want to associate themselves with any form of nuclear weapons (Davis, 2015, N.p.). Many people felt that there was massive loss of lives caused by the Cold War. They did not want more people to suffer or die due to the nuclear weapons. Hence, most individuals declared a state of a nuclear free zone that contributed to the end of the Cold War (Mcgrew, 2014, pg. 30).

In summary, many factors caused an end to the Cold War. Gorbachev reforms played a major part resulting to an end of the Cold War. Lack of food supplies, shelter, and clothing, was also an aspect that led to the end of the Cold War (Buzan and George, 2015, N.p.) . The issue concerning the freezing of nuclear weapons and people declaring themselves as ‘nuclear free zone,’ also brought an end to the Cold War.

Bibliography

Andonova, L., Betsill, M.M., Bulkeley, H., Compagnon, D., Hale, T., Hoffmann, M.J., Newell, P., Paterson, M., Roger, C. and VanDeveer, S.D., 2014. Transnational climate change governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Baylis, J., Owens, P. and Smith, S. eds., 2017. The globalization of world politics: An introduction to international relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Buzan, Barry and George Lawson. 2015. The Global Transformation: History, Modernity and the Making of International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cox, Michael. 2017. ‘Chapter 4: From the end of the cold war to a new global era?’ in Baylis, Smith and Owens (eds) The Globalization of World Politics: An introduction to international relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 68-82.

Davis, L.E., 2015. The Cold War Begins: Soviet-American Conflict Over East Europe. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

English, R., 2017. Ned Lebow on the Cold War’s End, and Aftermath. In Richard Ned Lebow: A Pioneer in International Relations Theory, History, Political Philosophy and Psychology (pp. 75-83). New York: Springer International Publishing.

McGrew, Anthony, 2014. ‘Chapter One: Globalization and Global Politics’ in Baylis, Smith and Owens (eds) The Globalization of World Politics: An introduction to international relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 15-31.

Schlaepfer, C., 2014. Signals Intelligence and British Counter-subversion in the Early Cold War. Intelligence and National Security, 29(1), pp.82-98.

Wilson, J., 2014. The Triumph of Improvisation: Gorbachev’s Adaptability, Reagan’s Engagement, and the End of the Cold War. New York: Cornell University Press.