International Relations
Cold War
Cold War -Meaning
● Signifies relations between East and West
● Bad, Strained and War-like but didn't reach the point of hot war
● Cold War didn’t have any winners or losers
● Signified a state of affairs
Origin of Cold War
● One view - Soviet expansionism resulted in American counter reaction
● Revisionist interpretation- laid emphasis on foreign policy requirements of
Us which was designed to meet expansionist requirements of capitalism.
The Soviets were then just resisting capitalist expansionism
● Geo-politics, cultural traits, security requirements, misunderstandings,
and misperceptions, none of which were mutually exclusive
● Ideological confrontation, post-Second war complications and
irreconcilability of vital interests of USA and SU
Causes of Cold War
● Delay in opening second front
● Differences over Polish and German questions
● Soviet activities in Iran, Turkey and Greece led to suspicions in the
West
● Truman declaration and Truman Doctrine - the policy of containment
● Marshall plan - the Iron Curtain
Phases of Cold War
● The initial years- 1946-1962
● Detente- Temporary thaw
● End of Detente and beginning if New Cold War
● End of Cold War
1946-1949
● Gradual consolidation of SU in Eastern Europe
● US policy of interventionist foreign policy
● Iran, Turkey and Greece
● Us bid to protect Western Europe from Soviet influence - revamping of
European economies
● Soviet response -Molotov plan of July, 1947
● Political response - setting up of COMINFORM
● Berlin Blockade, 1948
● Formation of NATO - April, 1949
1949-1953
● Communist China under Mao-Tse-Tung
● Korean War of 1950 - invasion of Sk by NK. US came to the aid of
Sk. Chinese intervention in Korea.
● Uniting for Peace Resolution
● Stalin’s death abated hostilities
● Detonation of Soviet Nuclear Device in August, 1949
1953-1959
● Indo-China became the theater for war after this point
● Warsaw Treaty Organization
● Domino Theory
● Vietnam War
● Indo-China conference, 1954
● China- Taiwan tension
● Middle East - Suez Canal crisis
● Eisenhower Doctrine - January, 1957
● Hungarian revolt on 1956
● US consolidation of its sphere of influence
1959-1962
● Camp David
● Proposed 4-power summit and U-2 incident
● Berlin Wall
● Cuban Missile Crisis
● Detente
Causes of Detente
Attainment of Strategic Parity by the Superpowers
- US enjoyed strategic superiority
- SU soon gained parity
- Intercontinental missiles
- Fear of thermonuclear war
Continued
American Compulsions
- Critical global public opinion
- Vietnam debacle
- Need to disengage from Vietnam
Continued
Soviet Compulsions
- Change in policy after Stalin's death
- Peaceful coexistence
- Economic compulsions - Lopsided development
Causes
China Factor
- Rise of China became a threat to Soviet Union
- China detonated its first Atomic bomb in 1964
- Sino-Soviet rift
- US utilization of the Sino-Soviet rift
Causes
Brandt’s Ostpolitik
- Normalization of relations between West and East Germany and
other eastern European countries in 1969-70
- Non-Aggression treaty
Causes
Linkage Theory
- Nixon and Kissinger sought to ease tension between the superpowers
by establishing linkages between the two countries that would be
mutually beneficial, thus lessening incentives for war
Implications
● Hotline between White House and Kremlin
● PTBT - 1963, OST - 1967, NPT- 1968
● SALT I & SALT II
● Agreements on trade, agriculture, oceanography, economics and
culture
● Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, August, 1975
● Apollo-Soyuz joint mission, July, 1975
● Mending relations with China
End of Detente
● Prague Spring and withdrawal of Czechoslovakia from Warsaw
Pact
● Brezhnev Doctrine
● Indo-Pak war and Liberation of Bangladesh
● Middle East Crisis - 1973
● Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979
Causes of New Cold War
● Carter Doctrine
● America’s moves in Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean Regions
● Non-ratification of SALT II
● Reagan’s presidency and end of Detente in 1982
● American involvement in Nicaragua
● Arms race resumed
● Reagan Doctrine
● Star Wars
New Detente ● Mikhail Gorbachev as President of SU in
1985
● Geneva Summit - Nov, 1985
● Reykjavik Summit - October, 1986
● Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
- 1987
● Moscow and Malta Summits, 1988,1989
● Moscow Summit, 1991 -START
● Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty
● 1991-92 - Bush’s unilateral nuclear arms
cuts
● Glasnost and Perestroika
End of Cold ● Non-implementation of Brezhnev Doctrine
War ● Collapse of Communist Governments in
Europe
● Collapse of Berlin Wall on 1989
● December, 1991 - USSR ceased to exist,
formation of Commonwealth of Independent
States
● Feb 1st, 1992 - President Bush and Russian
Federation President Boris Yeltsin declared
the end of Cold War
● June, 1992 - signing of the Washington
Charter
