World Politics, Trend, and Transformation - Essay Example

190915 WORLD POLITICS, TREND, AND TRANSFORMATION, BY CHARLES W. KEGLEY JR. Discuss in some detail the causes and consequences of the Cold War. Is the USA at present time waxing or waning as an empire? There are two main discussions outlined below; the causes and the consequences of the Cold War; and whether at the present time the USA is waxing or waning as an empire. The USA was one of several great powers at the start of the Second World War. Britain, France, Germany, Japan, the Soviet Union, and to a lesser Italy were considered to be great powers. The ambitions of Germany, Japan, and Italy had arguably caused the Second World War. The eventual defeat if these Axis powers ended their status as great powers. The exertions if fighting the Second World War also weakened France and most notably Britain. As a result the USA and the Soviet Union were left as the world’s only superpowers. The Cold War would result from the rivalry of these superpowers, and only ended shortly before the demise of the Soviet Union itself. Since the end of the Cold War there has been many debates about the position of the USA as the only superpower, as well as whether it is waxing and waning as an empire. There were various military, political, ideological and economic causes for the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union as well as their respective allies. The remarkable feat was that the USA and the Soviet Union had been allies alongside Britain in the first place. Neither power had been in the Second World War from the start, nor would they have become involved without being attacked by Germany and Japan respectively. The Soviet Union had done the bulk of the fighting against Germany, whilst the USA had defeated Japan virtually single-handed. The conferences at Yalta and Potsdam were meant to regulate the post-war world and it was hoped that the relationships between the wartime allies would remain good. The Soviet Union expected to be able to do what it liked in Central and Eastern Europe whilst the USA with Britain believed that those countries would be free to decide their own futures. The Soviet leader Joseph Stalin never had any intention of that happening, by 1948 all the states of Central and Eastern Europe were under communist control, with the Soviet army having a presence in all of those countries, apart from Yugoslavia and Albania. The USA and the governments of Western European countries feared that the Soviet Union wanted to advance further west. Conversely the Soviet Union feared that the Americans wished to end Soviet hegemony over Central and Eastern Europe. Mutual fears and misunderstandings definitely contributed to the onset of the Cold War, with the USA fearing the Soviet Union’s overwhelming conventional arms, whilst the Soviet leadership were concerned about the American monopoly of atomic bombs. The Americans did not realise how much material damage that the Second World War had caused the Soviet Union otherwise the fear that the Soviets would invade Western Europe would have been much lower. Joseph Stalin never had any intention of pushing the Soviet army further west than the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany. The Soviets had hoped that the economic destruction caused by the Second World War would provoke revolution in Western Europe especially in France, Italy, and West Germany. The USA launched Marshall Aid in 1948 to revive the economics of Western Europe as a result of the British being unable to assist the Greek government in its fight against communist forces. The consolidation of communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe convinced the Americans to maintain a substantial military presence in Western Europe. Cold War tensions were heightened by the ideological differences between the superpowers, the USA the defenders of capitalist liberal democracy against the Soviet Union the most powerful communist state in the world. The rivalry was shown by the nuclear arms race, as well as numerous regional conflicts. The Cold War certainly had consequences, such as the containment of conflict between the superpowers and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. The Cold War had witnessed regional conflicts such as the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, yet the superpowers never fought each other directly. Superpower rivalry meant that a great deal of money and resources were put into the nuclear and conventional arms races, which had particularly bad consequences for the Soviet Union and the former Warsaw Pact countries. The efforts of the USA to prevent the spread of communism did however promote regional development organisations, most notably the EU. The high cost of matching the military expenditure of the USA in effect bankrupted the Soviet Union and brought forward its collapse. For the USA supplying weapons to the Afghan resistance forces contributed to the Soviet suffering defeat. It also inadvertently made Afghanistan a stronghold for Islamist groups. The end of the Cold War appeared to demonstrate the superiority of capitalist liberal democracy over authoritarian communism. With the demise of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact China was the only major communist country and even its government had embraced capitalism, whilst refraining from political reform. In a formal sense the USA was never an empire as large as those of Britain and France were. Instead of having as many colonies as it could grab the USA preferred to exercise informal economic and political influence to other countries. Traditionally American influence had been strongest in LA, with governments of those countries finding it difficult to do anything that ran contrary to the wishes of the USA. American governments justified their interference through the Monroe doctrine. The USA did grab a few colonies, yet the nearest it came to having a formal empire was when it defeated Spain to gain control of Cuba and the Philippines. Cuba has been the only country within the Central and Latin American region to have a communist regime over a long-term period, the USA having undermined left wing regimes in Chile and Nicaragua. The CIA inspired Chilean military coup of 1973 being an example of the influence the USA could have on other countries. Some countries have always been in a better position to resist American influence, for instance the EU member states, the OPEC countries and China. Cuba has continued to defy the USA despite the demise of its biggest backer, the Soviet Union. American power does appear to be waxing and waning in relation to Islamic countries and movements. At present the influence of the USA is waxing and waning due to the spread of anti-American feeling, especially within the Muslim world after the 9 / 11 attacks and the subsequent war on terror. The decision of the Bush administration to invade Iraq has arguably reduced international support and respect for American foreign policy, with Russia, France, and China amongst the most prominent critics. The war on terror has obviously increased the USA’s military expenditure putting pressure upon an already huge federal budget. Financial weakness as previous empires have found to their cost can be as debilitating as military defeat. The economic decline of the USA could invariably lead to its eclipse as a military power. China, Japan, and the EU all have the capacity to economically outperform the USA over the long –term. China could also eventually become militarily more powerful than the USA. Read More