• The Second World War unleashed new forces and new powers in

World Politics.

• In 1945, the allied forces led by the US, Soviet Union, Britain and
France defeated the axis powers led by Germany, Italy and Japan.
Thereafter, the world witnessed the rise of two centres of power
– the US and the USSR.

• These two centres of power turned into power blocs – The

Western camp led by the US and the Eastern camp led by the
USSR.

• The two groupings in The World Politics for the first time in
human history got organized on ideological lines.
• The rivalry between the two became intense setting the new type of
warfare in operation, which came to be known as Cold War.

• The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War
II between powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its satellite
states ) and powers in the Western Bloc (the United States,
its NATO allies and others).

• In the graphic language of Hartman, “Cold War is a state of tension

between countries in which each side adopts policies designed to
strengthen it and weaken the other by falling short by actual war”

• The term "cold" is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly
between the two sides involved in the conflict, although there were
major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides.
Causes of the Cold War:
1. The Race of Armament between the two super powers served as a cause for
the Cold War. After the Second World War, Soviet Russia had increased its
military strength which was a threat to the Western Countries. So America
started to manufacture the Atom bomb, Hydrogen bomb and other deadly
weapons. The other European Countries also participated in this race. So, the
whole world was divided into two power blocs and paved the way for the Cold
War.
2. The Ideological Difference was another cause for the Cold War. When Soviet
Russia spread Communism, at that time America propagated Capitalism. This
propaganda ultimately accelerated the Cold War.
3. Russian Declaration made another cause for the Cold War. Soviet Russia
highlighted Communism in mass-media and encouraged the labour revolution.
On the other hand, America helped the Capitalists against the Communism. So
it helped to the growth of Cold War.
4. The Nuclear Programme of America was responsible for another cause for the
Cold War. After the bombardment of America on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Soviet Russia got afraid for her existence. So, it also followed the same path to
combat America. This led to the growth of Cold War.
FIRST PHASE(1947-1950)

• The formal beginning of the Cold War was made with the initiation of the Truman
doctrine, which put Cold War in action. Truman’s ‘Policy of Containment’ was based on its
assessment of the Soviet Union as inherently hostile to western interests and which is bent
on expanding its area of influence.

• The Truman doctrine was accompanied by a strategy known as the ‘Marshall Plan’. This
plan was meant for economic recovery and reconstruction of Europe. The idea behind this
plan was to extend help to those European nations which had been devastated during the
World War and who were interested in accepting economic assistance.

• In reaction to these measures, Stalin reactivated com inform to co-ordinate the activities
of its allies. It was meant to tighten Soviet’s control over the Eastern Europe.

• The Berlin blockade (The Berlin Blockade was an attempt in 1948 by the Soviet Union to
limit the ability of France, Great Britain and the United States to travel to their sectors
of Berlin, which lay within Russian-occupied East Germany) was the first indication of a
confrontationist political climate and the subsequent creation of NATO in 1949 was further
vindication of this politics. Apart from this, the thirty-years long Chinese civil war led to
victory of the communists. This had a major impact in Asian affairs and perception in both
Moscow and Washington.
Second Phase (1950-1953)
The Cold War entered into second phase with the Korean crisis which also took
the Cold War outside the borders of Europe. Through this war did not bring any
significant change in power equations but it certainly globalised the containment
policy as well as the cold war. This period is also significant for the Soviet Union
as it exploded its atom-bomb and attained strategic party with the U.S., forcing
many scholars to observe that it was beginning of an era of balance of terror.
Because both the superpowers now possessed the nuclear arsenals.
Third Phase (1953-1957)
The third phase of Cold War was marked by death of Stalin in 1953. There was also a change in
Presidency in the U.S., as Eisenhower replaced Truman. In this period it is to be recalled that the
US shifted its policy from simple containment to massive retaliation, to liberate people from
communist dictatorship.
In Russia, interestingly a process of de Stalinisation was started by Khrushchev. Very soon the
Cold War was transported to parts of Asia i.e., Indo-China and Vietnam. Militarily, this phase was
marked by the signing of Warsaw Pact among Russian allies and the formal division of Germany
into East and West.

The signing of Baghdad Pact (1955) later known as CENTO was a fall out of this period. Before
this, in 1954, the SEATO had already come into existence in the South East Asia after the defeat
of the French by the Vietnamese and the subsequent division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel.
Fourth Phase (1957-1962)
.
The crisis over Cuba in 1962 was the most dangerous moment is the Cold War. The
superpowers, perhaps, for the first time, stood in eye ball to eye ball confrontation.
But both American President Kennedy and the Soviet President Khrushchev became
anxious to reach at a diplomatic settlement. Finally Khrushchev decided to withdraw
the missiles, which he has installed is Cuba in return of assurance that America
would not invade Cuba.
Fifth Phase (1962-1969)
The happenings of 1962 were followed by a period of both competition and
coexistence. Though nuclear armaments continued to grow and some new
nuclear weapons states came into existence – Britain, France and China. But
this period was marked by the new realization that nuclear weapons were not
good for peace and humanity. Hence Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) was
negotiated in 1963, which banned testing of nuclear weapons in the
atmosphere. Simultaneously, the growing concern over the spread and
proliferation of nuclear weapons culminated into the negotiation of Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treat (NPT) in 1968. Under this treaty, the states, which
possessed nuclear weapons, committed themselves to stop arms race, while
those who did not have, resolved not to develop them ever. In this period,
Khrushchev talked of peaceful coexistence and carried it forward by visiting
America.
Sixth Phase (1969-1978)

This phase is remembered for ‘Détente’ which was cessation of tensions. Interestingly,
whereas the USSR and the USA began a new era of co-operation. On the other side of
spectrum, a new rift started between two ideological friends and partners – the USSR
and China known as Sino-Soviet conflict.
The American president Nixon and his adviser Henry Kissinger were instrumental in the
US-USSR ‘Détente’ as well as the Sino-American rapprochement. Though it is to be
remembered that this new phase in the Soviet-American relations did not lead to
cessation of all political conflict. Both superpowers supported and patronized friendly
regimes and movement, while at the same time tried to subvert their adversaries. And
most notably, the third world countries became the theatre of such activities. The
Indo-Pak war of 1971 and the upheavals in Ethiopia in 1975 and Aagola in 1978 are
case in point when the two superpowers pursued their political goals by meddling into
local conflicts.
Seventh Phase (1979-1987) : The New Cold War

The new Cold War started with Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1979 as it marked
the end of the period of ‘Détente’. The new cold war phase witnessed massive arms
race.
The subsequent Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI), which was a defence related
research programme designed to explore the possibility of space based defence
against missiles, was the immediate fall out of the second cold war.
The USA, under its new president Regan made significant departure on Nuclear
Weapons and its intervention is Grenada (1983) and Libya (1986). Regan’s support to
rebels in Nicaragua and his doctrine for Latin America triggered fresh controversies.
The Soviet were not for behind. In 1983 its air defences shot down a South Korean
civilian airlines in its air space.
But with a peculiar twist of history, Mikhail Gorbachev became president of the USSR
in 1985.
His new thinking and reformist approach in foreign policy along with his initiative for
domestic reforms created a new revolution both within the Soviet Union and its
relations with the USA and the Western powers. His policy of Glasnost (openness) and
Perestroika (restructuring) unleashed forces for change, which facilitated a new
‘Détente’ with the west.
 End of the Cold War

The advent of Gorbachev on the Soviet scene and his reform policies of Glasnost and
Perestroika in domestic matters and his desire to engage the west into peace
negotiations transformed the international politics of the Cold War days. He paved the
way for agreements on nuclear weapons and conventional forces. In 1987, Gorbachev
signed the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which banned intermediate-range
nuclear missiles, including cruise and perishing II. Later the American President George
Bush and Gorbachev concluded a strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) agreement,
which reduced long-range nuclear weapons. But this phase of new détente did not last
long as due to quick succession of events and crises, the Soviet Union disintegrated in
1991 and formally ended a long chapter in international politics, that was the cold war.
The end of the Cold War has equally transformed the politics of the globe. The end of
it has impacted international politics as massively as its on set had done. Some of its
impacts are :
(a) It has destroyed the bi-polarity in the world.
(b) It has put question mark on the relevance of NAM.
(c) The Third World Countries have become more vulnerable to arm twisting by the
big powers.
(d) The disintegration of the Soviet Union and the new dominance of the USA which
is now called new Pax-Americana, has a created new structures of dominance and
resistance.
(e) The establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and creation of new
terms for trade and development which are loaded in favour of more developed
countries are some of the indications of the post cold war world system.
(f) Proliferation of nuclear weapons and the rise of ethnic nationalism and religious
fundamentalism in different parts of the world and their confrontation with the
secular states, which is some time referred as the ‘New Cold War”, are emerging sites
of threat to world peace and have become new menace in post cold war world
politics.