Topic Cold War: Different Phases and Divergent

Transcript:Topic Cold War: Different Phases and Divergent:
Topic Cold War: Different Phases and Divergent Perspectives B.A.(P) IV Semester MEANING OF COLD WAR: Cold war can be defined in different terms: ● In economic terms it aimed at expansion of capitalism on a global scale; politically, it aimed at the development of highly centralised state; ● Militarily it was preoccupied with nuclear arms race. ● Ideological conflict between US capitalism and Soviet communism. ● Due to ideological differences each super power had developed misperceptions about the others motives and policies. Each perceived its own action as virtuous and other malicious. Therefore, cold war was rooted in the psychological factors and misperceptions, and ideological factor became secondary. IDEOLOGICAL PERCEPTIONS: Realists and Neorealists considered power vacuum in Central Europe and East Asia as the real cause of the cold war. Liberals perceived the lack of economic cooperation due to ideological differences between the two superpowers prevented any possibility of elimination of conflict between them Constructivists consider the contrasting identities of the two superpowers as the main source of conflict. Marxists interpreted cold war as western imperialism which referred to the domination of weak peripheral countries by the core. Practically, Both USSR and US acted as imperialists by using their economic and military prowess for centralisation of power on global landscape. PERCEPTION OF GLOBAL SOUTH The superpowers cold war started in Europe but gradually engulfed all the regions of global South which caused immense instability and conflicts in most of the third world regions The cold war got encompassed the whole world and regions of Global South became the battleground of both the superpowers which kept most of the regions divided and conflict ridden. Some of the regions experienced the most destructive wars in the history of the cold war: ● Three years war in Korea, ● Fifteen years war in Vietnam and ● Ten years war in Afghanistan These are some of the examples of superpowers proxy wars in the third world that had long term implications for their security. COLD WAR LED TO NEO-COLONIALISM AND NEO IMPERIALISM During the cold war period, there was hardly any region or country that was free from the domination of superpowers. The characteristic of imperialism and neo colonialism had a special place in the cold war policies of superpowers. Most of the countries in the southern world though obtained political independence, they became neo colonies or semi colonies and remained subordinate to the