Cold War Superpowers Vocab

Cold War - A period of geopolitical tension between the U.S and Soviet Union and their allies, the Eastern and Western bloc, started after the end of WWII.

Superpower - A state that could not be ignored on the world stage and without whose cooperation no world problem could be solved. The U.S and Soviet Union could not intervene in world affairs without thinking of each others next action.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) - Created by the U.S, Canada, and several western European countries, its main goal was to provide security against the Soviet Union.

Warsaw Pact - A collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland by the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc specialist republics of central and Eastern Europe.

Containment - A geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the US during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism after WWII.

Potsdam Conference - A meeting between the leaders of Britain, the U.S, and the Soviet Union in Germany to discuss terms for the end of WWII, mainly free elections in Europe.

Truman Doctrine - An American foreign policy that pledges American “support for democracies against authoritarian threats”. Originated with the goal of stopping Soviet spread.

United Nations - An intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations, achieve international cooperation, and serve as a coordinating centre.

Iron Curtain - During the Cold War, the iron curtain was a political metaphor used to describe the political boundaries dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of WWII to the Cold War.

Proxy War - A military conflict where one or more 3rd parties directly or indirectly support combattants in an effect to influence the outcome and advance their own strategic interests or to undermine their opponents.

Non-Aligned Countries - A forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned or siding with or against any major power country.

Marshall Plan - An American initiative enacted to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. U.S tranderred $13.3 billion in economic recovery programs after WWII.

Domino Theory - U.S foreign policy according to which the “fall” of a non-communist state to communism would precipitate the fall of non communist governments in neighboring states.

Berlin Wall - A guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin of the Federal Republic of Germany, separating it from East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic.

Brinkmanship - In the spectrum of the Cold War, the concept of brinkmanship involved the West and the Soviet Union using tactics of fear and intimidation as strategies to make the other side strike down.