International Relations after World War II

Introduction

  • End of World War II (1945) marked a decisive turning point in international relations.
  • Two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki in August 1945:
    • Supporters: “necessary to end war, save Allied lives.”
    • Critics: “Japan ready to surrender; real aim = showcase U.S. supremacy & warn USSR.”
  • Collapse of Germany, devastation of Japan & Europe → only two powers left with global reach: USA & USSR.
  • Great-Britain, France, other European powers lost pre-eminence; Germany partitioned, Japan shattered.
  • Emergence of two mutually suspicious, ideologically opposed super-powers → division into rival blocs → creation of military alliances → persistent tension short of open war = “Cold War.”

Meaning of Cold War

  • Term first coined by Bernard Baruch; popularised by journalist Walter Lippmann (“The Cold War”).
  • Denotes a condition of ‘neither war nor peace’ (1945-1990) between USA-led West & USSR-led East.
  • Evan Luard: “state of intensive competition—political, economic, ideological—below threshold of armed conflict.”
  • Jawaharlal Nehru: “brain war, nerve war, propaganda war.”

Characteristic Features of Cold War

  • 45-year high-tension rivalry without direct USA-USSR combat.
  • Dynamic, not static: 1950s = fear of World War III; 1960s saw easing.
  • Ideological crusade: Liberalism vs. Socialism; propaganda & diplomatic wars.
  • Both avoided hot war owing to risk of mutual nuclear destruction (logic of deterrence).
  • Formation of competing alliances: NATO (1949), Warsaw Pact (1955); Marshal Plan vs. Molotov Plan.
  • Intra-Communist “Red Cold War” (USSR–China rift).
  • Rise of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) helped moderate tensions → phase of détente (1971).

Origin / Causes of Cold War

  • Long-standing Western hostility to 1917 Russian Revolution; fear of Communism.
  • Immediate post-war frictions: Iran troop withdrawal dispute (1945-46), Yalta & Potsdam disagreements, Soviet pressure on Turkey & Germany.
  • Orthodox View: Soviet expansionism & totalitarian ideology provoked Western containment.
  • Revisionist View: U.S. capitalist expansion, atomic-bomb diplomacy & secret deals alienated USSR.
  • Structural factors: devastated Europe, colonial collapse creating power vacuums, nuclear weapons making total war unthinkable, bipolarity inevitable after defeat of Germany-Japan-Italy.

Phases of Cold War

  • Phase I (1947-1962): Heightened confrontation
    • Truman Doctrine (1947): aid to Greece & Turkey; Marshall Plan (5 June 1947).
    • Berlin Blockade & Airlift (1948-49); NATO formed 1949.
    • Chinese Communist victory (1949); Korean War (1950-53).
    • SEATO (1954), Baghdad Pact/CENTO (1955), Warsaw Pact (1955).
    • Suez Crisis (1956); Hungarian Revolt crushed.
    • Sputnik & nuclear arms race; Taiwan Strait crises (1954-55, 1958).
    • Berlin Wall erected (1961); Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) → brink of nuclear war.
  • Phase II (Détente 1963-1978):
    • Test-Ban Treaty (1963); Hotline; SALT-I (1972) & SALT-II talks (1967-79).
    • U.S.–China rapprochement (Nixon visits Beijing 1972).
  • Phase III (New Cold War 1979-1985):
    • Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979); NATO Euromissile decision.
    • Reagan’s “Evil Empire” rhetoric; Strategic Defence Initiative (1983).
  • Phase IV (Endgame 1985-1991):
    • Gorbachev’s glasnost & perestroika (1985 onward).
    • Revolutions of 1989; fall of Berlin Wall (November 1989).
    • Dissolution of USSR (December 1991) → Cold War ends.

End of the Cold War & Disintegration of USSR

  • Gorbachev rejected Brezhnev Doctrine; allowed East-European liberalisation.
  • Internally: economic stagnation, burden of arms race, rigid planning, administrative corruption.
  • Glasnost opened flood-gates of criticism; perestroika undermined Party control.
  • Rising nationalism in Baltic & European republics; failed hard-liner coup (August 1991).
  • Boris Yeltsin elected Russian president; CIS formed December 1991.
  • Consequences:
    • Bipolar conflict over; ideological East–West divide vanished.
    • Ethnic conflicts & terrorism surged (e.g., Balkans, Rwanda).
    • Debate over new order: Unipolar (U.S.), Multipolar (U.S., Europe, Russia, China, Japan) or revived Balance-of-Power.
    • Shock-therapy transitions in ex-Communist states; IMF-World-Bank influence.
    • Regional blocs (EU, ASEAN, NAFTA, SAARC, etc.) proliferated.

Bipolarity & Its Demise

  • Cold-War world = two nuclear-armed camps, each with alliance networks (NATO vs. Warsaw Pact).
  • U.S. containment doctrine shaped by Truman, then Eisenhower, Kennedy; mirrored by Soviet expansion & COMECON.
  • Fragmentation of Communist bloc (Sino-Soviet split) and economic resurgence of Germany & Japan diluted strict bipolarity.
  • Détente and SALT illustrated managed competition.

Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)

  • Foundational principles: Panchsheel Agreement between India & China (1954):
    1. Mutual respect for sovereignty & territorial integrity
    2. Mutual non-aggression
    3. Mutual non-interference
    4. Equality & mutual benefit
    5. Peaceful co-existence
  • Bandung Asian-African Conference (April 1955) → solidarity vs. colonialism & racism.
  • First NAM Summit: Belgrade (1-6 Sept 1961) – 25 members.
  • Subsequent Summits (selection):
    • Cairo 1964, Lusaka 1970, Algiers 1973, Colombo 1976, Havana 1979, New Delhi 1983, Harare 1986, Belgrade 1989, Jakarta 1992, Cartagena 1995, Durban 1998, Kuala Lumpur 2003, Havana 2006, Sharm el-Sheikh 2009, Tehran 2012.
  • Objectives: anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, disarmament, support for self-determination, economic justice, South-South cooperation (NIEO, NWICO).
  • Achievements: role in decolonisation (e.g., Angola, Namibia), campaign against apartheid, voice for Global South in UN.
  • Limitations: post-Cold-War fragmentation, dependency on donor states, internal conflicts among members, leadership vacuum.
  • Relevance today: widening North–South gap, WTO inequities, climate change, terrorism, debt—require collective Southern voice.

Unipolar World & U.S. Unilateralism

  • Post-1991: USA possessed \approx 25\% of world GDP & \approx 50\% of great-power defense outlays; unmatched power-projection (blue-water navy, global basing, R&D >80\% China’s defence spend).
  • Features of Unipolarity (Nuno Monteiro): single super-power, anarchical system, not imperial governance.
  • Emerging challengers: China (rapid GDP & defence growth, UNSC P-5, nuclear); Russia (vast resources, retained 85\% USSR nukes); European Union (economic giant); Re-unified Germany.
  • U.S. Unilateralism examples:
    • Operation Desert Storm (Gulf War 1991) – reliance on UNSC 678 but U.S. command.
    • Withdrawal from ABM Treaty (2002); refusal to ratify Kyoto Protocol; dismissal of ICC.
    • Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-2011) – launched without new UNSC mandate; goals claimed: WMD removal, regime change, anti-terror.
    • Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan (2001) – pursuit of Al-Qaeda & Taliban.

Key Treaties, Doctrines & Organisations (chronological snapshots)

  • 1917: Bolshevik Revolution.
  • 1945: Yalta & Potsdam agreements; UN founded.
  • 1947: Truman Doctrine; Marshall Plan; Cominform (Soviet response).
  • 1948-49: Berlin Blockade & Airlift.
  • 1949: NATO; Chinese People’s Republic.
  • 1954: Panchsheel; SEATO; First Taiwan Strait crisis.
  • 1955: Warsaw Pact; Bandung Conference.
  • 1956: Suez Crisis; Hungarian Uprising.
  • 1961: Berlin Wall; Belgrade NAM Summit.
  • 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis.
  • 1963: Hotline; Partial Test-Ban Treaty.
  • 1971: Formal onset of Détente.
  • 1972: SALT-I; Nixon visits Beijing.
  • 1979: SALT-II (unratified); Soviet Afghanistan invasion.
  • 1985: Gorbachev in power.
  • 1989: Fall of Berlin Wall.
  • 1991: Dissolution of USSR; Security Council Resolution 687 (Iraq cease-fire).
  • 2001: 9/11; U.S.-led Afghanistan war.
  • 2003: Invasion of Iraq.

Concept Check – Key Personalities & Terms

  • Harry S. Truman – U.S. containment architect.
  • Joseph Stalin – Soviet leader 1924-1953.
  • Nikita Khrushchev – Soviet premier during Cuban Crisis.
  • Dwight Eisenhower & John F. Kennedy – U.S. Presidents steering early détente.
  • Richard Nixon – détente & China opening.
  • Leonid Brezhnev – Soviet détente counterpart; Brezhnev Doctrine (intervention right in socialist bloc).
  • Mikhail Gorbachev – glasnost & perestroika.
  • Boris Yeltsin – led Russia post-USSR.
  • Fidel Castro – Cuban revolution & missile crisis actor.
  • Mao Zedong – Chinese Communist leader; Sino-Soviet split.
  • Jawaharlal Nehru, Josip Tito, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Kwame Nkrumah, Sukarno – founding NAM leaders.
  • Saddam Hussein – Iraqi Ba’athist president; Gulf Wars.
  • Osama bin Laden – Al-Qaeda chief.

Quick-Recall Bullet Bank

  • Cold War duration: 1945-1990.
  • Most critical Cold-War years: 1947-1962.
  • NATO formed: 4 April 1949; Warsaw Pact: 14 May 1955.
  • Cuban Missile Crisis peak: 16-28 Oct 1962.
  • Berlin Wall fell: 9 Nov 1989.
  • USSR dissolved: 26 Dec 1991.
  • NAM membership: 25 in 1961 → 120 by 2012.
  • U.S. GDP share \approx 25\% world total (mid-2000s); defence spending \approx 50\% great-power sum.