In the Shadow of a Titan

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Recommended: Collapse of the Soviet Union

Discomfort and chaos are the handmaidens of change and whilst change ultimately brings about boundless opportunities for new beginnings, the end of the Cold War and the demise of the two block system did not herald the creation of a more stable and balanced world order as many political commentators speculated. This essay will critically analyses the extent to which the post Cold War world order did not become more stable and balanced by illustrating the in-stability and conflict that erupted with the fall of the Soviet empire, and how the end of the cold war removed the blanket of stability, not just across the Central European and Balkans regions, but also the wider world. Secondly it will briefly examine how the balance of power was assumed by the West, primarily by the United States, including aggressive US leveraging of NATO in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Bloc and the receding boundaries of Soviet influence.

Ramifications of the ending of the Cold War: In the shadow of a Titan

The nature of the Cold War and the ominous potential of it escalating into direct armed conflict between the East and the West created an quasi-equilibrium that, whilst not containing smaller regional conflicts altogether, did manage to prevent wholesale hostilities from breaking out. There were several close calls during the decades the Cold War raged, conflicts, crises and proxy wars included, but in the end the mutual deterrence and possibility of nuclear exchange between the super-powers kept the Cold War from turning hot.

With the end of the Cold War the Communist threats of intimidation and proscribed loyalty under Stalin failed and that failure saw the collapse of several stabilizing Soviet legacies including institutional, m...

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...niversity, Fairfax, VA, 2008.

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Kaldor, M. 'Beyond The Blocs: Defending Europe The Political Way'. World Policy. Vol. 1, No. 1. 1983. pp 21.

U.S. Anti-Missile Systems in Europe Threatens Russia — General, MoscNews, February 9, 2007. Retrieved 16 October 2011< http://infowars.net/articles/february2007/090207Anti-Missile.htm>

BBC World News. 'Russia Warns of Nuclear Defense'. 19 January 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2011 < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7198181.stm>

Mearsheimer, J. 'Why We Will Soon Miss The Cold War'. Atlantic Monthly Online. August 1990. Retrieved 18 October 2011

Cox, M. 'The Cold War as a System'. June 2011. Retrieved 17 Oct 2011 < http://libcom.org/history/cold-war-system-michael-cox?quicktabs_1=1>

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