The Immediate Post– Cold War Era 57regional security.”^14 Af ghani stan was a test case, where a small group of UN observers
monitored and verified the withdrawal of more than 100,000 Soviet troops in 1988
and 1989—an action that would have been impossible during the height of the Cold
War. Similarly, the Soviets agreed to and supported the 1988 withdrawal of Cuban
troops from Angola. The Soviet Union had retreated from international commitments
near its borders, as well as others farther abroad. Most impor tant, the Soviets agreed
to cooperate in multilateral activities to preserve regional security.
The first post– Cold War test of the so- called new world order came in response to
Iraq’s invasion and annexation of Kuwait in August 1990. Despite its long- standing
support for Iraq, the Soviet Union (and later Rus sia), along with the four other perma-
nent members of the UN Security Council, agreed first to implement economic sanc-
tions against Iraq. Then they agreed in a Security Council resolution to support the
means to restore the status quo—to oust Iraq from Kuwait with a multinational mili-
tary force. Fi nally, they supported sending the UN Iraq- Kuwait Observer Mission to
monitor the zone and permitted the UN to undertake humanitarian intervention and
create safe havens for the Kurdish and Shiite populations of Iraq. Although forging a
consensus on each of these actions (or in the case of China, convincing it to abstain)
was difficult, the co ali tion held— a unity unthinkable during the Cold War.
The 1990s were marked by the strug gle of former allies and enemies to find new
identities and interests in more complex world. As the threat of World War III van-
ished, what was the purpose of an organ ization such as NATO? What was the pur-
pose or focus of state foreign policy to be if not the deterrence of aggression by other
states? The United States and Israel, for example, were unparalleled in their capacity toKEy DEvEloPmEnTs In ThE
ImmEDIaTE PosT– ColD War Era■ Changes are made in Soviet/Rus sian
foreign policy, with the withdrawals
from Af ghan i stan and Angola in the
late 1980s, monitored by the United
Nations.
■ raqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and I
the multilateral response unite the
former Cold War adversaries.
■ Glasnost and perestroika continue in
Rus sia, as reor ga nized in 1992–93.■ The former Yugo slavia disintegrates
into in de pen dent states; civil war
ensues in Bosnia and Kosovo, leading
to UN and NATO intervention.
■ Widespread ethnic conflict arises in
central and western Africa, Central
Asia, and the Indian subcontinent.In Fo Cus
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