The Pros And Cons Of The Cold War

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The Cold War was a hostile period in which the Western and Eastern Blocs engaged in an international power struggle, vying for ideological domination. The two superpowers- the United States and the USSR- did not engage directly in battle, yet began a dangerous race of nuclear proliferation in preparation for what was thought to be an imminent nuclear war (Kalinovsky and Daigle, 2014). As Lebow (1996) states, these events have been ‘ widely recognized to have ushered in a new era in international relations’; the Cold War has been identified as having presented new risks, which have inevitably shaped international relations to account for the changed nature of global dangers (Lebow,1996, para. 1). The Cold War has therefore been seen to have…show more content…
Liberalism emerged as a result, with a greater emphasis on alliances, and greater co-dependency between states. Cobden (1878) - a core thinker within the Liberal paradigm- believed that free trade would create a more peaceful world order, through mutual advantageous relationships. These ideas were hoped to make war an unattractive option for states, posing a threat to all who engage in conflict. Liberal internationalism also emerged, arguing for the need of states to negotiate and make agreements to prevent further destruction. Indeed, Wilson (2005) advocated a removal of all economic barriers, with equal trade conditions. It was hoped that these ‘conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance’ would heighten relative feelings of global security (Wilson, 2005, p.262.) International institutional frameworks such as the United Nations and the League of Nations were hoped to create better diplomacy, and facilitate compromise rather than conflict. International law was also hoped to have the effect of binding states together, with free markets creating trading agreements which would foster peaceful rather than hostile relationships. This was hoped to create a dominant conceptualisation of security shared by

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