The End of the Cold War

Paper Summary:

This piece examines the varying issues that led to the end of the Cold War in Europe. A full exposition of the differing factors involved is offered in detail. These include political and social transformation in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, along with the role of external forces; namely the United States. However, the ultimate argument is that it was inherent economic malfunctions within the communist economies that caused their collapse. Other factors although important, can only be considered on the basis of this economic foundation.

From the Paper:

"In Fulton Missouri on 5th March 1946, using words that would reverberate down the decades Winston Churchill proclaimed, "From Strettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent of Europe." It was undoubtedly an accurate appraisal of the political state of affairs that would dominate the international landscape for almost half a century and effect, to differing degrees the internal and foreign relations of every nation on the planet. Contentious debate has since flourished among the academic fraternity as to the origins and beginning of what we now term the Cold War. However, there is no doubt that the international system which dominated the latter half of the twentieth century came to a dramatic end between 1989 and 1991. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Ball, S.J. The Cold War: An International History, 1947-1991. London: Cambridge, 1998.
• Churchill, Winston. Never Give In: The best of Winston Churchill's Speeches. London: Pimlico, 2003.
• Crockatt, Richard. The Fifty Years War: The United States and the Soviet Union in World Politics, 1941-1991. London: Routledge, 1995.
• DePorte, A.W. Europe between the Superpowers: The Enduring Balance. London: Yale, 1986.
• Dunbabin, J.P.D. The Cold War: The Great Powers and their Allies. New York: Longman, 1994.

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