End of the Cold War + Post Cold War World

Gorbachev's 3 main aims summarized

1. Glasnot: political opening and opportunities for criticism – made him less popular in comparison because people were allowed to criticize him

2. Perestroika: economic + political restructuring of command economy – restricted corporate price fixing, reduced military spending and gave (limited) ballot options

3. “new thinking” – changing foreign policy doctrine renounced the Brezhnev doctrine (which prevented countries from leaving the USSR without starting war), renounced

Glasnot explained

• people were allowed to criticize the government through official avenues

• Gorbachev more open to international relations

• led to him becoming unpopular – because people could criticize him + because his policies were too on the fence

Perestroika explained

• recognized command economy's problems so limited enterprises’ ability to fix prices + gave farmers control over small amounts of land & the goods they produced on them

• reduced focus/spending on military arms industry, reducing popularity with industrialists

• gave limited choice in electoral democracy – ballot had several names but all from the same party

“new thinking” explained

• renounced class struggle and world revolution as dominant principles of USSR foreign policy

• renounced Brezhnev doctrine (= any country who decided to leave the soviet union could be prevented from doing so with military force)

• principle of reasonable sufficiency regarding nuclear weapons: just enough to deter, no more – redirected materials from military construction to civilian infrastructure

progression of events leading to collapse of soviet union

1. in the 80s, central European countries became free very quickly with varied extents of democratization and liberalization

2. collapse of Berlin Wall + lifting of travel restrictions on East Berlin is example of how unexpected + rapidly it occurred

3. Gorbachev tried to appease both sides but ended up appeasing no one

4. + Gorbachev domestically unpopular due to alcohol crackdown

5. by 1991, clear the USSR had collapsed permanently at least in some respect

Gorbachev – success or failure?

• got nobel prize for peace

• arguably initiated the end of the USSR – bad for the USSR, but ending an oppressive regime = good

• unclear whether Gorbachev knew what he was doing – argument that he aimed to reform communism to make it desirable but not abolish it, in which case he failed

• was Gorbachev the reason the USSR collapsed?

5 arguments for why the USSR collapsed

1. US and its arms race – USSR losing/going bankrupt

2. Imperial overstretch – couldn't continue influencing so many places

3. poor economy + excessive military spending – stretched too thin + resources allocated poorly

4. ethnic discontent – imbalance b/w ethnic Russians + other nationalities, increasing nationalist opposition to USSR + resistance of ethnic minorities

5. Gorbachev – reforms caused collapse?

7 traits/events of the Post-Cold War world

1. bipolarity replaced by multipolar, complex system

2. dominance of the West no longer uncontested – economic and political competition w/ China + authoritarian states that show economic development doesn't only come with democratization

3. global economic inequality remains severe

4. boundary b/w civil wars and inter-state wars become increasingly blurred, more frequent interventions that can cause greater problems

5. states have remained the dominant actors in international system, even when some states have dissolved

6. religiously inspired non-state violence and “assymetrical warfare” dominanted international scene from 9/11 to Russia's invasion of Ukraine

7. rising populist, illiberal political movements in many democracies