Post–Cold War era

Top: the change in borders in eastern Europe following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Bottom: former
Russian president Boris Yeltsin waving the Russian flag in celebration of Russian democracy on 22 August
1991

The post–Cold War era is a period of history that follows the end of the Cold War, which represents
history after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. This period saw many former Soviet
republics become sovereign nations, as well as the introduction of market economies in eastern Europe.
This period also marked the United States becoming the world's sole superpower.

Relatively to the Cold War, the period is characterized by stabilization and disarmament. Both the United
States and Russia significantly reduced their nuclear stockpiles. The former Eastern Bloc became
democratic and was integrated into world economy. Most of former Soviet satellites and three former Baltic
Republics were integrated into the European Union and NATO. In the first two decades of the period,
NATO underwent three series of enlargement and France reintegrated into the NATO command.

Russia formed CSTO to replace the dissolved Warsaw Pact, established strategic partnership with China
and several other countries and entered non-military organizations Shanghai and BRICS. Both latter
organizations included China, which is a fast rising power. Reacting on the rise of China, the Obama
administration rebalanced strategic forces to the Asia-Pacific region.

Major crises of the period included the Gulf War, Yugoslav Wars, the First and Second Congo Wars, First
and Second Chechen War, September 11 attacks, War in Afghanistan (2001–2021), Iraq War, Russo-
Georgian War and the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. Another ongoing war, the Syrian Civil War, is
widely described as a series of overlapping proxy wars between the regional and world powers, primarily
between the US and Russia.
With the coming to power of Vladimir Putin, Russia gradually became more authoritarian and its foreign
policy more aggressive. This resulted in deterioration of relations with the Western world. The deterioration
culminated with sanctions, military aid to Ukraine, international isolation, and a prospect of further NATO
enlargement.

Background
Faced with the threat of growing German and Italian fascism, Japanese Shōwa statism, and a world war,
the Western Allies and the Soviet Union made an alliance of necessity during World War II.[1] After the
Axis powers were defeated, the two most powerful states in the world became the Soviet Union and the
United States. Both federations were called the world's superpowers.[1] The underlying geopolitical and
ideological differences between the recent allies led to mutual suspicions and shortly to confrontation
between the two, known as the Cold War, which lasted from about 1947 to 1991. It began with the second
Red Scare and ended with the fall of the Soviet Union, though some date the end to the Revolutions of
1989 or the world's first treaty on nuclear disarmament signed in 1987.

Ronald Reagan's campaign trail towards the U.S. presidency in 1980 was focused on rebuilding the
country. Over the next couple of years, the economy was recovering, new foreign policies were made, and
the market was booming with independence. In opposition, the Soviet's economy was declining, their
military power was declining, and they overestimated the amount of influence they had in the world. The
United States' newfound superpower status allowed American authorities to better engage in negotiations
with the Soviet, including terms that would favor the U.S. According to Chairman of the Presidium of the
Supreme Soviet Leonid Brezhnev (in office 16 June 1977 – 10 November 1982), reducing the tension
between the US and USSR was necessary in order to focus on fixing economic issues in the USSR. He
theorized that rebuilding the USSR would ensure greater economic competition with the US.[2]

Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis wrote at the dawn of the post–Cold War era that the characteristics
of the new era are not yet certain but that it was certain that it would be very different from the Cold War
era and that it meant that a turning point of world-historical significance took place:

The new world of the post–Cold War era is likely to have few, if any, of these [Cold War]
characteristics: that is an indication of how much things have already changed since the Cold
War ended. We are at one of those rare points of 'punctuation' in history at which old patterns
of stability have broken up and new ones have not yet emerged to take their place. Historians
will certainly regard the years 1989–1991 as a turning point comparable in importance to the
years 1789–1794, or 1917–1918, or 1945–1947; precisely what has 'turned,' however, is much
less certain. We know that a series of geopolitical earthquakes have taken place, but it is not
yet clear how these upheavals have rearranged the landscape that lies before us.[3]

Subsequent events after the Cold War

During the Cold War, much of the policy and the infrastructure of the Western world and the Eastern Bloc
had revolved around the capitalist and communist ideologies, respectively, and the possibility of a nuclear
warfare. The end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union caused profound changes in nearly every
society in the world. It enabled renewed attention to be paid to matters that were ignored during the Cold
War and has paved the way for greater international cooperation, international organizations,[4] and
nationalist movements.[2] The European Union expanded and further integrated, and power shifted from
the G7 to the larger G20 economies.
The outcome symbolized a victory of democracy and capitalism which became a manner of collective self-
validation for countries hoping to gain international respect. With democracy being seen as an important
value, more countries began adopting that value.[2] Communism ended also in Mongolia, Congo, Albania,
Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Angola. As of 2023, only five countries in the world are still ruled as
communist states: China, Cuba, North Korea, Laos, and Vietnam.

United States foreign policy changes

The United States, having become the only global superpower, used that ideological victory to reinforce its
leadership position in the new world order. It claimed "the United States and its allies are on the right side
of history."[5] This new world order is referred to as "liberal hegemony" in international relations theory.
Using the peace dividend, the United States military was able to cut much of its expenditure, but the level
rose again to comparable heights after the September 11 attacks and the initiation of the War on Terror in
2001.[6] Accompanying NATO expansion, Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) systems were installed in
Eastern Europe. The US also became the most dominant over the newly-connecting global economy.[7]
However, from a relatively-weak developing country, China appeared as a fledgling emerging superpower.
That created new potential for worldwide conflict.[7] In response to the rise of China, the United States has
strategically "rebalanced" to the Asia-Pacific region, though at the same time, began to retreat from
international commitments.[8]

Government, economic, and military institutions

The end of the Cold War also coincided with the end of apartheid
in South Africa. Declining Cold War tensions in the later years of
the 1980s meant that the apartheid regime was no longer supported
by the West because of its anticommunism, but it was now
condemned with an embargo. In 1990, Nelson Mandela was freed
from prison and the regime began steps to end apartheid. This
culminated in the first democratic elections in 1994, which resulted
in Mandela being elected as President of South Africa.

Socialist and communist parties around the world saw drops in

membership after the Berlin Wall fell, and the public felt that free-
market ideology had won.[9] Libertarian, neoliberal,[10]
nationalist[10] and Islamist[10] parties, on the other hand, benefited
from the fall of the Soviet Union. As capitalism had "won," as
people saw it, socialism and communism in general declined in
popularity. Social Democrats in Scandinavia privatized many of
their institutions in the 1990s, and a political debate on modern
economics was reopened.[11] Scandinavian nations are often now Nelson Mandela casting his vote in
seen as social democrat (see Nordic model). the 1994 South African elections.

The People's Republic of China, which had started to move

towards capitalism in the late 1970s and faced public anger after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in
Beijing, moved even more quickly towards free-market economics in the 1990s. McDonald's and Pizza
Hut both entered the country in the second half of 1990, the first American chains in China, aside from
Kentucky Fried Chicken, which had entered in 1987. Stock markets were established in Shenzhen and
Shanghai in late 1990 as well. Restrictions on car ownership were loosened in the early 1990s and caused
the bicycle to decline as a form of transport by 2000. The move to capitalism has increased the economic
prosperity of China, but many people still live in poor conditions and work for companies for very low
wages and in dangerous and poor conditions.[12]

Many other Third World countries had seen involvement from the United States and/or the Soviet Union,
but solved their political conflicts because of the removal of the ideological interests of those
superpowers.[13] As a result of the apparent victory of democracy and capitalism in the Cold War, many
more countries adapted these systems, which also allowed them access to the benefits of global trade, as
economic power became more prominent than military power in the international arena.[13] However, as
the United States maintained global power, its role in many regime changes during the Cold War went
mostly officially unacknowledged, even when some, such as El Salvador and Argentina, resulted in
extensive human rights violations.[14]

Technology

The end of the Cold War allowed many technologies that had been off limits to the public to be
declassified. The most important of these is the Internet, which was created as ARPANET by the Pentagon
as a system to keep in touch after an impending nuclear war. The last restrictions on commercial enterprise
online were lifted in 1995.[15] The commercialization of the Internet and the growth of the mobile phone
system increased globalization (as well as nationalism and populism in reaction).

In the years since then, the Internet's population and usefulness have grown immensely. Only about 20
million people (less than 0.5 percent of the world's population at the time) were online in 1995, mostly in
the United States and several other Western countries. By the mid-2010s, more than a third of the world's
population was online.[16]

Further research continued into other Cold War technologies with the declassification of the Internet. While
Reagan‘s Strategic Defense Initiative proved untenable in its original form, the system lives on in a
redesigned state as the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). Countermeasures such as BMDS
continue to be explored and improved upon post Cold War, but are often criticized for being unable to
effectively stop a full nuclear attack. Despite advances in their efficacy, Anti-ballistic missiles are often
viewed as an additional piece to modern day diplomacy where concepts such as Mutual assured destruction
(MAD) and treaties such as that between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev following their
Reykjavík Summit.[17]

Alongside continued research defensive countermeasures there has been a proliferation of nuclear weapons
around the world. Many nations have acquired technology required to produce nuclear weapons since the
end of the Cold War. Pakistan’s nuclear program acquired Centrifuges capable of enriching uranium in the
80‘s and in 1998 was able to conduct several underground tests. Today the United States, Russia, the
United Kingdom, France, and China all possess nuclear weapons and have signed the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty in an attempt to curb the spread of nuclear weapons. Pakistan, India, and North Korea
are also in possession of nuclear technology but have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The Cold War brought with it increased research into radio technology as well as nuclear weapons. The
success of Sputnik 1 lead to an increase funding for Radio telescopes such as Jodrell Bank Observatory for
use in tracking Sputnik and possible nuclear launches by the Soviet Union.[18] Jodrell Bank and other
observatories like it have since been used to track Space probes as well as investigate Quasars, Pulsars, and
Meteoroids. Satellites such as the Vela (satellite) that were originally launched to detect nuclear detonation
following the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty have been used since then to discover and further investigate
Gamma-ray bursts.

See also
International relations since 1989
Second Cold War
Cold War
Middle-Eastern Cold War
AI Arms Race
Arms race
Nuclear arms race
Digital Revolution
Postmodernism
War on terror
Cold peace
Interwar period
Road to Now

References
1. "Cold War Revision" (http://www.johndclare.net/cold_war1_redruth.htm). Johndclare.net.
2008-11-21. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20130911041644/http://www.johndclare.
net/cold_war1_redruth.htm) from the original on 2013-09-11. Retrieved 2013-09-21.
2. Goldman, Kjell, Hannerz, Ulf, Westin, Charles (2000). Nationalism and Internationalism in
the post–Cold War Era (https://books.google.com/books?id=y0tYwbrj0yEC). Psychology
Press. ISBN 9780415238908. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20230115072538/http
s://books.google.com/books?id=y0tYwbrj0yEC) from the original on 2023-01-15. Retrieved
2021-03-11 – via SAGE Pub.
3. "The Cold War, the Long Peace, and the Future," Diplomatic History, 16/2, (1992): p 235.
4. Mohapatra, J. K., & Panigrahi, P. K. (1998). "The Post–Cold War Period: New
Configurations". India Quarterly. 54 (1–2): 129–140. doi:10.1177/097492849805400111 (htt
ps://doi.org/10.1177%2F097492849805400111). S2CID 157453375 (https://api.semanticsch
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5. Condoleezza Rice, "Promoting the National Interest," Foreign Affairs, 79/1,
(January/February 2000): p 45.
6. Shah, Anup (30 June 2013). "World Military Spending — Global Issues" (http://www.globalis
sues.org/article/75/world-military-spending). Globalissues.org. Archived (https://web.archive.
org/web/20190512200743/http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending)
from the original on 2019-05-12. Retrieved 2013-09-21.
7. GADDIS, JOHN LEWIS (April 1992). "The Cold War, the Long Peace, and the Future".
Diplomatic History. 16 (2): 234–246. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.1992.tb00499.x (https://doi.or
g/10.1111%2Fj.1467-7709.1992.tb00499.x). ISSN 0145-2096 (https://www.worldcat.org/iss
n/0145-2096).
8. Weisbrode, K. "America's Strategic Surrender," Internationale Politik, Summer 2006.
 9. Archivist (14 January 2013). "Left and radical :: SWP" (http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/keyw
ord/Left_and_radical/SWP/15967/14-01-2013/collapse-of-stalinism-and-the-1990s).
Socialist Party. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20131001123318/http://www.socialist
party.org.uk/keyword/Left_and_radical/SWP/15967/14-01-2013/collapse-of-stalinism-and-th
e-1990s) from the original on 2013-10-01. Retrieved 2013-09-21.
10. "The Lost American - Post–Cold War | FRONTLINE" (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontli
ne/shows/cuny/laptop/coldwar.html). PBS. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201309260
40603/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cuny/laptop/coldwar.html) from the
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11. Francis Sejersted (2011). The Age of Social Democracy: Norway and Sweden in the
Twentieth Century (https://books.google.com/books?id=P_rlI_S59dMC&pg=PA356).
Princeton University Press. p. 356. ISBN 978-0-691-14774-1.
12. "Apple's Chinese suppliers still exploiting workers, says report" (http://www.cbsnews.com/83
01-205_162-57571591/apples-chinese-suppliers-still-exploiting-workers-says-report/). CBS
News. 2013-02-27. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20130926030854/http://www.cbsn
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13. Ruland, Jurgen (2016-07-22). U.S. Foreign Policy Toward the Third World: A Post–Cold War
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14. Bonner, Raymond. "Time for a US Apology to El Salvador | The Nation" (https://web.archive.
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2020-01-16. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
15. Cameron Chapman. "The History of the Internet in a Nutshell" (http://sixrevisions.com/resour
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-nutshell/) from the original on 2013-09-25. Retrieved 2013-09-21.
16. "One third of the world's population is online : 45% of Internet users below the age of 25" (htt
p://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/facts/ICTFactsFigures2011.pdf) (PDF). Itu.int.
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17. Pugacewicz, Tomasz (2021-06-23). "Missile Defense Roles in the Post-Cold War U.S.
Strategy" (https://doi.org/10.12797%2Fpoliteja.14.2017.50.12). Politeja. 14 (5 (50)): 263–
293. doi:10.12797/politeja.14.2017.50.12 (https://doi.org/10.12797%2Fpoliteja.14.2017.50.1
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18. Spinardi, Graham (August 2006). "Science, Technology, and the Cold War: The Military
Uses of the Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope" (https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1468274060079542
8). Cold War History. 6 (3): 279–300. doi:10.1080/14682740600795428 (https://doi.org/10.10
80%2F14682740600795428). ISSN 1468-2745 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1468-2745).
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Further reading
Aziz, Nusrate, and M. Niaz Asadullah. "Military spending, armed conflict and economic
growth in developing countries in the post–Cold War era." Journal of Economic Studies 44.1
(2017): 47-68.
 Bartel, Fritz (2022). The Triumph of Broken Promises: The End of the Cold War and the Rise
of Neoliberalism (https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674976788). Harvard
University Press. ISBN 9780674976788.
Henriksen, Thomas H. Cycles in US Foreign Policy Since the Cold War (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2017).
Jones, Bruce D., and Stephen John Stedman. "Civil Wars & the Post–Cold War International
Order." Dædalus 146#4 (2017): 33-44.
Menon, Rajan, and Eugene B. Rumer, eds. Conflict in Ukraine: The Unwinding of the Post–
Cold War Order (MIT Press, 2015).
Peterson, James W. Russian-American relations in the post–Cold War world (Oxford UP,
2017).
Sakwa, Richard. Russia against the Rest: The Post–Cold War Crisis of World Order
(Cambridge UP, 2017) 362pp online review (http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=5
1562)
Wood, Luke B. "The politics of identity and security in post–Cold War Western and Central
Europe." European Politics and Society 18.4 (2017): 552-556.

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