LEC 3: The cold war/nuclear race

Question 1

what ways can the cold war be desribed as?

Answer 1

• a global arms race in which prior to it there were no nuclear weapons and after they are the defition of what states have power and which dont
• political military rivalry between the US with a large economy and okay military and the Soviets with a great army and less of an economy
• ideological rivalry: the difference in democratic v communist ideolgoies were seen projected onto other states not in europe. for example communism stuck in developing countries as democracy as viewed having links to colonialism
• insterstate conflicts: due to the british and french empires loosing impetus and many countries gaining indepenences there was a lot more territoy to play with to get states on ‘their side’

Question 2

was the cold war really cold?

Answer 2

• although no conflict took place in europe many proxy wars which cost thousands of lives took place in asia which arguably was ‘hot’

Question 3

what is the orthodox interpretation as to why the cold war began?

Answer 3

• the cold war was the result of soviet agression. US diplomacy as the outset was passive adn reactive to soviet agression

Question 4

what is the revisionist interpretation as to why the cold war began?

Answer 4

US agression forced the hand of the soviet union
the US were motivated by economic intersts to take a more agrssive stance against the union in which they retailliated to

Question 5

what is the in-between view on why the cold war began

Answer 5

• the soviet policy was perceived to Be aggressive and going against thee spirit of the yalta conference
  and thee US policies were perceived by the soviets as aggressive
  ALL ABOUT PERCEPTION

Question 6

EVENTS: what was the stresed relations period

Answer 6

• the beginning of the cold war
• after 1945 the establishment of the united nations menas that the US and soviets were meant to co-operate however this didnt happen due to historical mistrust that the US have towards the soviets after the 1919 revolution
• the soviets mistrusted the US after they waited to join the second world war which was seen be to allow the soviets to fights and loose more men so they were a weaker power on the other side

Question 7

what was agreed at the tehran conference in 1943?

Answer 7

• coordinated allied landings in france

Question 8

what was agreed at the yalta conference in feb 1945?

Answer 8

establishement of democracy in eastern european countries (however the soviets didnt let this happen and instead created ‘peoples democracies)

Question 9

what was agreed at the potsdam conference in July-August 1945?

Answer 9

divded germany into two

Question 10

what was the policy of containment

Answer 10

• the US took a lead in international relatins after the war and wanted to contain communism wherever possible
• the marshall plan offered aid to countries to prevent communism
• stalin beleived that becuase this aid was offered to eastern european countries that the US were trying ot bribe countries to come away from soviet sphere of influence

Question 11

what were the events in the early phases of the cold war?

Answer 11

• china fell under communist rule after civil war which was a huge wake up call to the US. one of the largest countries in the world was now red
• this was the era of the red scare and lead to the vietnam war war which was china v US
• donimo theory: if one country falls so will the others which led to the korean war ect

Question 12

what was the Khrushev era

Answer 12

the second phase of the war
- cooling of realtions and co-existance e
- khruushev started destalisation
- however the secodn berlin crisis leading to the berlin wall and the failed bay of pigs invasion lead to cuban missile crisis

Question 13

what were the events of the detente era

Answer 13

• leaders: nixon and bhreznev
• by 1968 the vietnam war was going badly for the US and nixon planned on detente to get them out
• mixed expections at to what detente was going to look like:
  soviets wanted to be equal to the US and the US wanted the soviets to be weaker than them

Question 14

what treaties were decided during detente?

Answer 14

• SALT I and SALT II
• international test ban treaty
• helsinki treaty attempting to impanet human rights into eastern european countries

Question 15

what brought an end to the cold war?

Answer 15

gorbachev’s new thinking
1985 became head of thee soviet party and allowed for democratic restructuring of eastern european countries as well as withdrawals of troops from proxy war conflicts

Question 16

how do classical realists make sense of the end of the coldwar?

Answer 16

• states needs to be focused on foreign policy and balancing power, no ideology or democratic promotion
• the aim is try to prevent one state from becoming so powerful it can persure whatever aims it wants
• relaists try to create a safer sowrld mitigating and amaging conflict recognising it cannot be eliminated
• if you beleieve war can be eliminated you are a utopianist
• humans are driven by egotistical self interest whichis why conflict is always possible

Question 17

morgentahu’s 3 types of state

Answer 17

status quo: happy with how things are and want to maintain it

revisionist: unhappy with current territory (modern russia)

prestige: states who want to maintain and increase their influence to maintain power

Question 18

whats neo-relaists view on war

Answer 18

• move away from human nature and towards structure:

waltz argues that the world operates in an anarchical structure
anarchies contain inter-state competition and power distribution and these 2 properties allow for causal patterns to be decided to determine the behavior of states

(thus you can study war systemically)

Question 19

according to neo-realists what. drives states

Answer 19

all states have the same national interests which is security
- every single state can be viewed the same as it has the same interest

Question 20

how do neo-realists classify what world we are living in?

Answer 20

try to determine how many main powers are at play in the world
- this is done by determining if its bipolar or monopolar and to do this a countries economic and military strength is assesses

• this allows a prediction of how states will act as each scenario has patterns which can be followed

ex in a bipolar period such as the cold war it was easily predictable that. the main powers would use other states against each other

Question 21

what is the balancing theory of neo-realism

Answer 21

• smaller states will form alliances with eachother when a great power is becoming too dominating to ensure their countries security

ex Japan, south korea working together against china or NATO against the soviet union

once the threat dissapears the alliances usually fade out (todays friends are tomorrows enemies)

Question 22

what is the neo-realist theory of bandwagoning?

Answer 22

the inverse of balancing
if you are a small powerless state you connect with a growing state for ensure security

Question 23

what are collective action problems (neo-realism)

Answer 23

because the world is anarchical and all states are worried about their own security there is a limit to the amount of co-operation that can occur

agreements made between states are making sure one state doesn’t come away better than the others

Question 24

what is back passing? (neo-realism)

Answer 24

• if states dont need to get involved in conflict they wont they will pass to other states
• for example when the US refrained from opening a third front up in the secodn world war allowing the soviet to fight for them )

Question 25

what is chain gaining? (neo-realism)

Answer 25

• alliances made between countries due to the monopolar world we live in
  means that even small conflicts can involved more states than it needs to because of people being so worried about the balance of power being off

Question 26

neo realism on nuclear weapons:

Answer 26

waltz believes that:
- in a state of anarchy atates will accumular nuclear weapons as it givens them security
- nuclear weapons can easily be stabilising as their destruction potential is so huge it could calm down conflicts
- therefore the effects of anarchy are mitiages becuase of MAD

Question 27

what are the main criticisms of neo-realism