cold war Flashcards
1
Q
inevitable
A
when two states equally matched and more powerful than the rest, they are bound to be rivals at some point
2
Q
how it came about
A
- slow process of interaction between rivals, from 1944 until 1947, or even 1950 (the war in Korea).
- soviet refusal to assist the Polish uprising against the Germans in Warsaw in August 1944 was a political marker of importance in Soviet–American relations
3
Q
who was responsible
A
- stalin rejected compromise by the West but after recognising western acts as being solely to limit soviet advancement
- he was wrong about their intentions
4
Q
what it was about
A
ideology + geopolitics
5
Q
- Cuban missile crisis
A
scared both states and taught them that they had to have more self-discipline in their behaviour and military
6
Q
warfare
A
- proxy wars
- The Soviet Union was fatally outclassed in economic strength by the United States
- propoganda
7
Q
nuclear weapons
A
- Nuclear weapons developed in an Anglo-American crash programme from 1942 to 1945, out of anxiety lest the Germans should be the first to acquire ‘the bomb’
- Nuclear weapons raised the political threshold for the resort to force in relations between nuclear-armed states
- Stalin didn’t believe in stable mutual deterrence brought on by MAD
8
Q
war and peace post-cold war
A
- many believe interstate wars have passed
- New paradigm of war – ‘amongst the people’
- Interwar thesis – another great power conflict waiting to occur + focus on America as a nation at war within itself
- In the absence of an obvious dominant threat to national security, US policy and strategy lacked focus and urgency
9
Q
end of Cold War
A
- ended unusually
- soviets still held a government + a functioning state with military
