Cold War - Competing Understandings Flashcards
Realist understanding of the Cold War?
P - WW2 created a bipolar world in which only one country can become a global hegemony and write the international order on their terms
E - system of international anarchy meant it was in both in Russia and US interest to ensure the survival of their interests
E - Vietnam War, in which newly formed states formed alliances with either Soviet Union or USA .
Liberal understanding of the Cold War?
P - Liberals would argue the aggressive nature of the Soviet Union is the cause of the Cold War
E - Soviet advance into Eastern Europe, the ‘USSR declined to cooperate with western efforts to drop supplies for the Warsaw resistance. This led to Nazis slaughtering the anti-soviet undergoing.
E- Demonstrates the Soviet’s irrationalty and disregard for international humanitarian laws. Responsibility of US and allies to contain the influence of USSR
Causes of Cold War - ideological
P - Both responsible due to the exceptional opportunity to remake the modern world and the antithetical nature of the ideologies
E - Allen quote
E - Lenin quote
Lenin quote on capitalism
‘As long as capitalism and socialism exist, we cannot live in peace’.
Lenin, 1917
Allen quote on the new world order
‘Each side believed with passion that future international stability was dependent on their conception of the new world order’
Allen, 1998
What was George Kennan‘s sources of Soviet Conduct?
Document describing the nature and ideology of the Soviet Union and what the US response should be
Helped form the Truman Doctrine
What should the US response be?
‘Long term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies’
Kennan, 1947
Why did US pursue a policy of containment?
The Cold War was needed to justify the actions of Stalin, and its organs of suppression. Therefore long term containment of that ideology can limits its effectiveness whilst the west continues to advance, standing in opposition to communism.
