Questions on The end of CW:

1. ‘An emerging new world disorder.’ Discuss the view of the international system in the 1990s.

2. With the end of the CW, we saw greater division than unity.” How far do you agree with this view?

Basically, both questions are asking about the impacts of the end of CW, whether it was positive [optimistic view] or negative [pessimistic view]. Support of both questions would be ‘disorder’ and ‘division’ whereas challenge would be ‘no disorder’ and there’s ‘unity’.

S1: The end of the Cold War compounded the problem of international terrorism by facilitating the growth of religious extremism.

ü The US CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and the Pakistan Intelligence Services had heavily supported the anti-Soviet forces during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan during the 1980s with weapons and bomb making techniques.

ü The subsequent Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan allowed the anti-Soviet forces like the Al-Qaeda to freely pursue its worldwide crusade against the West via the World Trade Center bombing (1993), attack on US Navy ships (USS Cole, in 2000) etc. A concerted reaction was stifled by the Taliban government in Afghanistan (another element of the anti-Soviet forces) and Sudan governments who provided safe havens for Al-Qaeda.

ü The manipulation of the local elements in proxy conflicts for the Cold War provided the basis for the aggravation of such problems. The Cold War had united the anti-west elements together and the superpowers had no way to restrain them. Therefore, the world became more unstable and further from peace with the sustained threat of terrorism.

S2: Likewise, the end of the Cold War caused chaos in international politics.

ü Much of the chaos was due to the disappearance of communism as the unifying ideology. Nationalism and ethnic clashes then came into prominence.

ü In the former Soviet Union, previous Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war over disputed territory. Georgia, another former Soviet republic, its northern regions (of another ethnic group) fought to separate from the rest of the country. Chechnya also wanted to exit from Russia, the largest successor state to the USSR.

ü As Yugoslavia broke into 5 states, ethnic clashes exploded with genocides in Bosnia and Serbia in a bid to remove minorities from each other. The conflicts lasted for 9 years from 1991 to 2000 with some continuing to present day.

ü Thence, the end of the Cold War led to greater destabilisation and warfare in Europe.

C1: The end of the Cold War brought an end to confrontational foreign policies in some Third World countries and help elevate the role of international organisation.

ü There was an end to the zero sum perception in gaining ideological allies.

ü The superpowers were thus able to approve UN peacekeeping forces and ensure free and fair elections (after years of warfare) in Cambodia and also helped in East Timor

ü UNTAC (1992) managed to supervise elections in Cambodia

ü UNTAET (1999) helped established independence from East Timor

CA: However, peace and stability in this respect was limited. The Middle East peace process continued to stagnate. Afghanistan fell into chaos once more as the Taliban insurgents overthrew the Soviet backed government while fighting arose again in Angola.

C2: There was greater stability and peace as nations focused on economic development and social spending while former enemies became allies.

ü In the late 1990s, Hungary, Poland and the former Czechoslovakia joined NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation previous meant to defend against Soviet invasion)—this encouraged peace as it reduced possible military confrontation between the states

ü Above that, owing to the much reduced threat of military conflict, many states like Germany, US and even communist China focused on economic development

ü One clear example would be that there was also greater economic cooperation as East Germany was integrated with West Germany into the European Union

CA: However, while integration into European Union had been positive step forward for economic integration, it also started to concretised new divisions between EU, and other regional organisations such as LAFTA, NAFTA and ASEAN.