Mikhail Gorbachev former General Secretary became the youngest Soviet leader and a time of economic stagnation and dearth of foreign currency earnings as a result of downward slide in oil prices. The economic depression prompted Gorbachev to introduce new measures and structural changes to revive the ailing Soviet economy.
The structural economic reform was called perestroika designed to relax production quota system, encourage privatization and gave incentives for foreign investment.
According Gaddis (2005) ―these measures were intended to redirect the country's resources from costly Cold War military commitments to more profitable areas in the civilian sector.‖ Mikhail Gorbachev though continued with the arms race but was more open to discuss bilateral issues and held four meetings with President Ronald Reagan. He withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan. And he signed an agreement with the United States to destroy all intermediate range nuclear force [INF] missiles and short-range [SRINF] missiles.
Also, Gorbachev simultaneously introduced glasnost, or openness, which increased freedom of the press and the transparency of state institutions. Glasnost was intended to reduce the corruption at the top of the Communist Party and moderate the abuse of power in the Central Committee Glasnost also enabled increased contact between Soviet citizens and the western world, particularly with the United States, contributing to the accelerating detente between the two nations. The relationship between the East and West improved through the mid-to-late 1980s. For instance, in 1989 there was widespread unrest in Eastern Europe, Gorbachev did not intervene as these countries cut their ties with the Soviet Union, withdrew her forces from Afghanistan and agreed to the unification of Germany in 1990.
Without Soviet military support the communist leadership of Warsaw Pact states became ineffective and sooner than later the component states of the Soviet Union began to declare their independence with the complete withdrawal of the Baltic states from the Union. Consequently, the dissolution of the Soviet Union became inevitable and the communist party lost its 73 year monopoly of state power.
The dreadful Berlin wall which had been a symbol of German division and cold War conflict interest fell on November 9, 1989, for it will be remembered as one of the great moments of cold War and German history. Barely twenty three days from the collapse of the Berlin Wall precisely on December 3, 1989 at the Malta Summit, the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the United States President George H.W. Bush declared the Cold War over. Finally, on December 25, 1991, the USSR was declared officially dissolved as a result of the internal wrangling and threat to succession from the Union culminating in the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States created on December 21, 1991.
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Self Assessment Exercise
Critically examine the role of the foreign policy in the development of the Cold War
4.0 CONCLUSION
Cold War from the original usage to the post-war tension, it was made popular by the tensions between of tension the United States and the Soviet Union with armed conflict. And there are different account and numerous volumes on the origin of and what and who caused the Cold War by historians, political scientists and conflict scholars. Also, it has provoke different thoughts and orientation as to ask whether the conflict between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and her allies.
What is however true of the different accounts is that no single one is exhaustive of the entire conflict progression and development. The Cold War is preponderant on the creation and development of nuclear weapons and nuclear confrontation which had immense effect in the areas outside Europe through nuclear threat.
The conflict is one of the final episodes of post-war peace settlement which never came and the Cold War deeply permeated life in East and West, affecting culture and society as well as politics and the military. The Cold War is about the contest between capitalist democracy and socialist communism, while in reality the situation was more complicated, with the 'democratic' side, led by the United States and the western allies and the Soviet Union with its austere authoritarian regimes led the eastern Bloc as countries under the Soviet sphere of influence.
5.0 SUMMARY
The unit discussed the synopsis of the Cold War with retrospection on the earlier wars to achieve the balance of power in Europe. The journey so far took us through the various events of the Cold war especially the confrontations, military formations, policy, arms race and nuclear weapons. The unit specifically discussed the actions and reactions of the superpowers especially to the confrontations and issues in the Berlin blockade and air lift, Berlin Walls and the division of the City of Berlin and indeed Germany. Also, in this unit, we discussed some fundamental conflict situations and how they were resolved.
6.0 TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT (TMA)
1 Attempt a discourse on the history of the Cold War
2 Discuss the roles Ronald Regan and Mikhail Gorbachev in the end of the Cold War
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS
Blackburn, Glenn (1989) The West and the World Since 1945 2 edition New York:
St. Martins Press
Gaddis, John Lewis (2005). The Cold War: A New History . Penguin Press.Halle Louis J. (1967), The Cold War As History. New York: Harper & Row Publishers
Hamm, Manfred R. (1983), ―New Evidence of Moscow‘s Military Threat‖. The Heritage Foundation. http://www.heritage.org/research/russiaandeurasia/EM27
Nye, Joseph S. (2003), Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History. New York: Longman
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