The end of the Cold War after 20 years: Reconsiderations, retrospectives and revisions

Abstract

The end of the Cold War was a momentous development, a watershed in world politics that was both sudden and largely unexpected – and its twentieth anniversary is at hand. This cluster of events – the end of bipolar rivalry, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the unification of Germany, far-reaching nuclear arms reductions and the end of international communism – all set the stage for a new era of world politics organized around American unipolarity and the hegemony of capitalism and liberal democracy. One era ended and a new one began. In the wake of the end of the Cold War, theorists advanced a variety of competing explanations. A major debate unfolded, touching on multiple aspects of this grand historical turn. Along the way, many of the most important questions in international relations theory were at stake and in play. Realists emphasized the importance of shifting power and American assertiveness. Liberals emphasized the character of the Western system and the opportunities and constraints it presented to the Soviet side. Globalists emphasized the centrality of nuclear vulnerability and its imperatives for reconciliation. Others emphasized the centrality of the economic weakness of state socialism and its implications for international rivalry and its domestic performance. Yet, others emphasized the importance of transnational movements, the transmission of ideas, the role of popular culture and information, shifting norms of legitimacy and transformational leadership. The end of the Cold War was a development – like the Cold War itself – that no major