Key Developments
in the ColD War■ Two superpowers emerge— the
United States and the Soviet Union.
They are divided by national
interests, ideologies, and mutual
misperceptions. These divisions are
projected into dif er ent geographic
areas.
■ A series of crises occurs— Berlin
blockade (1948–49), Korean War(1950–53), Cuban missile crisis (1962),
Vietnam War (1965–73), Soviet
military intervention in Af ghan i stan
(1979–89).
■ A long peace between superpower
rivals is sustained by mutual
deterrence.i n FoCus
ways that addressed their own experiences. The globalization of post– World War II
politics thus meant the rise of new contenders for power. Although the United States
and the Soviet Union retained their dominant positions, new alternative ideologies acted
as power ful magnets for populations in the in de pen dent and developing states of Africa,
Asia, and Latin Ame rica. Later, in the 1970s, these states advanced a new economic
ideology, summarized in the program of the New International Economic Order (see
Chapter 9).the cold War as a series of confrontations
We can characterize the Cold War itself (1945–89) as 45 years of overall high- level
tension and competition between the superpowers but with no direct military con-
flict. The advent of nuclear weapons created a deterrence stalemate in which each side
acted, at times reluctantly, with increasing caution. As nuclear technology advanced,
both sides realized that a nuclear war would likely result in the destruction of each
power beyond hope of recovery. This state of affairs was called “mutual assured
destruction”— aptly underlined by its acronym: MAD. Though each superpower
tended to back down from par tic u lar confrontations— either because its national
interest was not sufficiently strong to risk a nuclear confrontation, or because its ideo-
logical resolve wavered in light of military realities— several confrontations very nearly
escalated to war.
The Cold War, then, can be understood as a series of confrontations. Most were
between proxies (North Korea versus South Korea, North Vietnam versus South Viet-48 CHAPTER TWo ■ h istoriCal Context oF international relationsESSIR7_CH02_020_069_11P.indd 48 6/14/16 10:02 AM