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BLOCK-IV CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Studying International Relations CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

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BLOCK-IV CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Studying International Relations CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BLOCK-IV CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Studying International Relations CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Block-IV discusses major themes in Contemporary IR. These are: Cold War and its different phases; anti-colonial movements and decolonization; end of Cold War and the emergence of global order/disorder; and finally, the changing nature of the UN system. Historians continue to debate the genesis of Cold War including the period when it started. Nevertheless, the end of Second World War saw US and its allies on one hand and Soviet Union on the other hand engaged in a tense competition to carve out spheres of influence in Europe and elsewhere particularly in Asia. In the name of ideological rivalry, whether socialism delivers justice or whether capitalism delivers prosperity, Cold War was marked by bloc politics, arms race, proxy wars and satellite regimes. The two sides were so heavily armed that there emerged concepts like ‘balance of terror’, and ‘mutually assured destruction’ (MAD). Cold War went through different phases of highs and lows. It was a period of tension and subdued hostility. Many crises occurred from the 1940s to the early 1990s which had the potential of direct confrontation between the two nuclear armed superpowers. The major crises that dominated international relations were the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam, Hungary, the Berlin wall and Korea crisis. No denying, the Cold War helped shape Modern World History. On a positive note, one can say that it provided massive opportunities for political, economic and social development of the nations. Modern World History would be different if not for the occurrence of the Cold War. The collapse of the USSR and its communist system provided considerable changes in foreign policies of many countries, including the United States. As the 1990s began, the Cold War was finally over and the United States was the sole remaining superpower. But hopes for a safer, more peaceful world would be dashed as regional conflicts and global problems challenged the American foreign policy establishment to chart a new course for the United State. As unipolarity dawned, US in a mood of Triumphalism thought of remaking the world after its own image; and that meant interventions of different types with or without UN approval. Decolonization is the defining feature of the second half of the 20th century; legacies of colonialism continue to shape and impede the prospects of development and freedom in the erstwhile colonies in Africa, Asia and the Latin American-Caribbean region. What is decolonization? In the International Relations and Global history, distinctions are often drawn between empire (a political and economic structure); imperialism (the practice of creating such structures, as well as ideological and cultural justifications for them); colonization (the actual settlement and peopling of territories); and colonialism (advocating and supporting such settlement and domination of the local people and culture). Decolonization, however, is a concept that encompasses actions and processes that counteract, reverse, or terminate all of these phenomena. Formal “independence” – the achievement of sovereign nation-statehood by a previously colonized territory – is the most common understanding of what Decolonization entails. The most enduring outcome of decolonization is that it 168 brought the concept of empires as constituting international system to an end; Understanding International and very successfully substituted empires with nation-states. As empires declined, Relations scores of old and new nation-states were ready to assume membership of the international system. The international system that emerged in 1945 was thus normatively very different from all others which had preceded it. It is amazing to see the evolution of the idea of nation and nation-state gain universality through decolonization. Very diverse pluralities of tribal, ethnic, racial, linguistic and religious types gelled together under the banner of a ‘nation’ and, through decolonization, sought to have a state of their own which would work to realize and advance the goals of ‘nationhood’. “Nationhood” was the goal of anti- colonial movements; “state” was the tool to translate the dream of ‘nation’ into reality, hence anticolonial movements desired a lot to gain control of the colonial state. The events that occurred during 1989-92 in Soviet Russia, East and West Germany, East Europe, and Yugoslavia are considered to be the end of the Cold War. Subsequently, it led to the emergence of the ‘New World Order/ Disorder’. The new order/disorder that emerged has been interpreted variedly by various experts; it is still unfolding and therefore its interpretations also continue to accumulate. For Francis Fukuyama, end of Cold War meant the onset of ‘end of history’. Capitalism and liberal democracy have triumphed; nothing new shall replace them. Walter Russell Mead and others saw the rise of economic regionalism. Their three bloc geoeconomic model saw the rise of three regional economic poles centred in the US-led North America, Europe as a single union and a Japanese-led South East Asia. There was no answer to the question whether regionalization is building bloc or stumbling bloc for globalization? Realists saw in the end of Cold War a return to a ‘revitalized balance of power’. The world has returned to being multipolar and, therefore, peace and stability rest on balance of power among the four major powers – US, Europe, Russia and China. Samuel Huntington saw the clash of civilizations coming. The end of Cold War means reactivation of cultural fault lines among world’s leading civilizations particularly between Islam and the West. Then of course there was the thesis of US unipolar moment which, it was hoped, would last several decades. There is sort of a predicament to global governance which is most evident in the functioning of the UN system. The UN remains indispensable to maintain international peace and security; though it is found wanting on many occasions when events overtake UN’s capability. There have been instances of genocides and brutal foreign interventions with UN watching events unfold helplessly. How to reform the UN is a key question on the global agenda for the last almost 25 years. There is a felt need to enhance its capability and effectiveness besides to enhance its representative character. But how to go about reforming the UN; the issues get embroiled in power politics. 169 Contemporary International Relations UNIT 12 COLD WAR: DIFFERENT PHASES* Cold War: Different Phases Structure 12.0 Objectives 12.1 Introduction 12.2 The Beginning of Cold War 12.2.1 The Korean War 12.3 Second Phase of the Cold War 12.3.1 The Berlin Crisis 12.3.2 Cuban Missile Crisis 12.3.3 Suez Crisis 12.4 Third Phase- Detente 12.4.1 The Cold War and Arms Race 12.5 Collapse of Detente and Re-Emergence of Cold War Hostilities 12.6 The End of the Cold War 12.7 Let Us Sum Up 12.8 References 12.9 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises 12.0 OBJECTIVES It is impossible to understand contemporary international politics without first understanding the dynamics of the Cold War, and the legacy it left behind. This Unit will introduce you to all the crucial events of the Cold War and its different phases. After reading this unit you should be able to: Explain the defining features of the Cold War Distinguish different phases of the Cold War Identify major events and developments during each phase of the war and Explain the impact of the Cold War on world politics. 12.1 INTRODUCTION From the dying embers of the Second World War rose the Cold War. Even before World War II had reached its conclusion, the foundations of a new hostility were laid. These hostilities took the form of a major ideological rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, which was reflected in a major arms race between the two superpowers (these weapons, however, were never employed against each other directly). This intense rivalry could also be witnessed in the attempts by these two superpowers to meddle in the affairs of other countries to check the other’s influence while increasing their own. However, the war can be considered ‘cold’ only in the limited sense that it never took the form of another ghastly world war, or that the two superpowers never directly faced each other on the battlefield. For all other purposes, the world at large remained embroiled in complications resulting from the intense Soviet-American rivalry and their thirst for global domination. The term ‘Cold War’ was first used by the British * Dr. Sanchi Rai, Independent Researcher, Currently associated with New York University, 171 Abu Dabhi Contemporary International writer George Orwell in 1945 and has since been used to describe “the undeclared Relations state of war” that had existed between United and Soviet Union since the end of World War II (Westad, 2010, p 3). 12.2 THE BEGINNING OF THE COLD WAR The exact date of the start of the Cold War cannot be ascertained the way one would pinpoint the commencement date of conventional war (for example, the Second World War started on 1st September 1939). Instead, the origins of the Cold War can be seen in the pattern of interactions between the Western powers and the Soviet Union, which roughly began in 1945. The end of World War II saw major shifts in international politics. From being multi-polar, the world became bi-polar. This essentially meant that before the World War, there were many powerful countries which were capable of extending their influence beyond their borders - for example, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, United States etc. The Second World War, however, brought with it a decisive wave of decolonisation around the globe which heralded the end of formal empires.
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