Essay On The Nature Of Cold War

The Political and Military Nature of the Cold War
The Cold War refers was an unrelenting state of military and political apprehension that existed between the Western and Eastern Power Blocs. The Western bloc encompassed the United States, NATO and allies while the Eastern Bloc was made up of the Soviet Union and its partners formulated in the Warsaw Pact . The dates have not been fully agreed upon by Historians, but commonly mentioned periods range from 1947 to 1991. The reason for the war christened as cold was the nonexistence of direct large-scale fighting between the two sides apart from the major regional conflicts in Vietnam and Korea. The Cold War resulted in momentary crevice in the wartime alliance directed against the Nazi Germany that left the United States and the USSR as the two conflicting superpowers. This drift had profound political and economic implications over democracy and capitalism.
The two superpowers did not engage in full-scale armed combat, but each armed itself heavily just in case. They were ready for the Third World War that was going to be all-nuclear. Each side was armed with nuclear deterrents to counterattacks launched by either side based on the assumption that one attack would destroy the enemy. The doctrine employed was that of mutually guaranteed obliteration otherwise known as MAD . On top of the two sides developing nuclear arsenals and positioning conventional military forces, they expressed struggle for supremacy through global surrogate wars, technological competition envisaged in the Space Race, espionage and propaganda including psychological and cyber warfare. The Soviet Union and Germany had agreed on non-aggression, but it was still invaded by the German Army, and Josef Stalin bel...

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... War. Back then, the world was in tension, but there were defined lanes of power and authority. That world is gone and today, the world is anything but a sea of tides. In fact, it is exactly the opposite of the situation during the Cold War. Globalization has windswept borders and complex technologies are posing serious threats to global security. In this respect, experts responsible for drafting US National Security strategies must incorporate all elements of US power, be it economic might, military capability, persuasive diplomacy, soft power or development aid to make the world a better place . Iran has proven to be the new threat to regional and global security. It nuclear power actions must be regulated by a vibrant and strategic foreign policy. To do this, a number of lessons can be borrowed from the situation during the Cold War as discussed in this paper.