The World after the Cold War Era - Assignment Example

The World after the Cold War Era al Affiliation The World after the Cold War Era The fell of Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War in the late 1990s. From the military multipolarity era (1814-1945), the global system was transformed into the bipolar system (1945-1991) which was dominated by the United States and the Soviet Union (Lundestad & Jakobsen, 2013). After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, unipolarity has come into existence as the United Sates is the only remaining superpower in the world. Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, there have been many research and studies to investigate whether the world has become more peaceful and stable or less peaceful and unstable after the Cold War (Lundestad & Jakobsen, 2013). According to Kennath Waltz’s argument the world becomes more stable and peaceful when it is dominated by few superpowers. In other words, unipolar world is more stable than multipolar world (Lundestad & Jakobsen, 2013). However, considering ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Africa, growing economic and political crises, growing international and domestic terrorism, emerging multipolar system, and weakening dominance of the US, present world has become less peaceful and more instable than the Cold War era. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the growing instability and potential threats to the security and peace in the world by means of various examples and facts. The concept of unipolarity is used to define the global power system which is mainly dominated by one superpower. After the end of Cold War, there wasn’t typical West vs. East conflict as it was in the 20th century. Due to lack of real challenges, the US enjoyed the status of most influencing power in the world. It allowed the US to interfere or involve in the global issues that often didn’t reflect the national interests (Lundestad & Jakobsen, 2013). According to power structure analyzers, unipolarity is volatile and unstable because it always advances towards multipolarity as other emerging powers attempt to overthrow the dominance of one nation in global system. Though the superpower can curb such progress, at least for the short period, its dominance will eventually be lowered as a result of constantly emerging new powers (Lundestad & Jakobsen, 2013). Since the oil embargo of 1973, the US has maintained aggressive policies towards Middle-eastern countries in order to control vast oil reserves in the region. Under the quid pro quo deal, the US provides defense security to Middle-eastern states in return of oil (Cran & Barker, 2012). For the purpose of marinating sovereignty and stability in Asia and Europe, the US has established many permanent military bases in these regions. Certainly, it has prevented the developing countries from participating in the arms race, but the US has to allocate a large share of its financial budget on defense purposes, affecting its overall economic growth (Cran & Barker, 2012). On the other hand, countries like, Russia, China, and India are rapidly progressing towards potential superpowers with strong economic growth, advanced military power, and growing influence in the international politics (Varisco, 2013). As the world is progressing towards multipolar power system, it is expected that there will be intense competition among these nations to dominate the global system, triggering various conflicts and instability in the world. Moreover, ongoing conflicts of these nations with their neighboring states are possessing strong threat to global peace. For example, in context of strong rivalry between Japan and China, India and Pakistan, India and China, any tension in these regions is enough to trigger massive violent conflicts (Varisco, 2013). Also, Russia, which is responsible for stable natural gas supply in Europe, has highly increased its military spending since 2007 (Varisco, 2013). Increased gas prices by Russia have already raised tension between the Western countries and Russia. The competition between Russia and the US to control Central Asian petroleum reserves, the growth of Russian military power, dispute between the US and Russian over critical global issues such as, the identity of Kosovo, the Iranian nuclear deal, and Ukrainian crisis, raise serious doubts on stability and peace in the post-cold war era (Varisco, 2013). Terrorism is another major threat to the global peace. After the attacks of 9/11, the threat of international terrorism became more intense. Terrorist organizations like, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Haman, and Egyptian Islamic Jihad are responsible for terrorist attacks in various parts of the world (SiliconIndia, 2012). Al-Qaeda is responsible for the majority of terrorist attacks in the US and other western countries. According to the reports of the United Nations, Taliban and its associated groups were responsible for 80% of Afghan civilian causalities in 2011 (SiliconIndia, 2012). The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has captured northern Iraq and most of the Syrian territory, has emerged as the most threatening and powerful terrorist organization in the world. According to the reports, the Islamic State generates over $1 million in a day by selling oil from the conquered regions. Moreover, it has rose over $21 million in a year only through ransom (Berman, 2014). Many experts have predicted that it wouldn’t take a long for ISIS to escalate in other Arab states with their current progress rate (Berman, 2014). If the Islamic State will get the access to Gulf oil, it will significantly affect the global economy, creating massive chaos around the world. Also, the nuclear weapons are posing serious threat to current global peace. Though the possibility of nuclear war between Russia and the US has lowered after the end of the Cold War, the number of countries with nuclear weapons and ongoing nuclear projects are increasing day by day. North Korea has illicitly possessed nuclear weapons. Constant threats of North Korea about using nuclear weapons against South Korea and the Western powers and the current nuclear programs of Syria and Iran have raised the anxiety on an international level (Understanding Nuclear Threats, n.d.). Though compare to the WWII and the Cold War era, the number of casualties in violent conflicts has dropped in recent years, it can’t be considered as a scale to judge the peace and stability in the world. The growing instability and conflicts in the developing and poor countries are the major challenge to global security. Growing corruption, rapidly growing population, high unemployment rates have weakened the economic growth of third world countries. Poor living standards and failed economic system trigger social and political turmoil in these regions which often turn into intense violent riots and civil wars. Ukrainian crisis and Arab Spring are great examples of it (Global Risks 2014, 2014, p. 26-27). According to the reports of Eurasia Group, the recent conflicts in Egypt, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine, Chile, Thailand, South Africa, Russia, and Bulgaria were mainly triggered by massive corruption, unequal civil rights, economic and political failure in these countries. In these conflicts overall 60-70 million people actively participated. Considering the vast population and territories of these countries, more than 30% of the world’s population is living in instable and insecure surroundings (Global Risks 2014, 2014, p. 26-29). In today’s globalized world, each country is directly or indirectly dependent on one another. The crisis in one country doesn’t even affect the population of that country, but other countries too. The economic crisis in the south-east Asia in the late 1990s is the great example of it. The economic crisis in Thailand which was small economy with low foreign ties rapidly spread in other southeastern countries, soon reaching to doors of the US (Cran & Barker, 2012). Today’s world is interconnected with the delicate link of economic and political interests of each country which can be easily broken with the rise of conflict in any part of the world. In conclusion, the present picture of stability and peace in the world is highly illusive. Considering the ongoing conflicts in various parts of the world, growing energy crisis, multipolar structure favoring environment, weakening dominance of the US, rising power of terrorist organizations, access to lethal biological, nuclear, and chemical weapons, ongoing global economic and political crisis, the global peace and stability is in great danger. Therefore, on the basis of various facts and criteria, it is appropriate to claim that today’s world has become less peaceful and unstable after the end of the Cold War. References Berman, R. (2014, October 23). The Worlds Wealthiest Terrorists. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/isis-oil-money-ransom-smuggling/381862/ Cran, W. (Producer), & Barker, G. (Director). (2012). The New Rules of the Game (Episode 3). Commanding Heights. Podcast retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/hi/story/ch_menu_03.htm Global Risks 2014. (2014). World Economic Forum, pp. 1-60, PDF document. Retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalRisks_Report_2014.pdf. Lundestad, E. B., & Jakobsen, T. G. (2013, February 5). A Unipolar World: Systems and Wars in Three Different Military Eras. Popular social science. Retrieved from http://www.popularsocialscience.com/2013/02/05/a-unipolar-world-systems-and-wars-in-three-different-military-eras/ SiliconIndia. (2012, August 24). Most Dangerous Terrorist Groups in the World. SiliconIndia News. Retrieved from http://www.siliconindia.com/news/general/Most-Dangerous-Terrorist-Groups-in-the-World-nid-127317-cid-1.html Understanding Nuclear Threats. (n.d.). NTI. Retrieved from http://www.nti.org/threats/nuclear/ Varisco, A. E. (2013, June 3). Towards a Multi-Polar International System: Which Prospects for Global Peace? E-international relations students. Retrieved from http://www.e-ir.info/2013/06/03/towards-a-multi-polar-international-system-which-prospects-for-global-peace/ Read More