Principios y valores

At the latent stage of the Cold War, especially with the Soviet expansionist activities as a manifest national sense of insecurity, the West led by the United States and even Winston Churchill in his popular Iron Curtain speech titled Sinews of Peace allude to the Soviet Union as pursuing a world dominance agenda. Likewise, the Soviet Union saw the United States response to the very many crises as a ploy to ward off the Soviet Union and plans to encircle and destroy their socialist system. This

misperception is a product of mistrust like Ronald Reagan, a cold War President of the United States observed ―we don‘t mistrust each othe r because we are armed, we are armed because we distrust each other‘ which in turn bred conflict.

existence of weapons of mass destruction presupposes that wars could not be entered into arbitrarily and could only be deterred by the awareness of the capability of such destructive weapons. Deterrence through Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was a salient feature of the Cold War in that the development and possession of nuclear weapon such as Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBN) deterred both powers from attacking each other. This is because, the Soviet Union and the United States were aware of the delicate balance that existed with each developing and possessing weapons of mass destruction that in a split seconds could make the planet earth inhabitable and reduce each other to nothing. Therefore, none of the leaders of the superpowers countries were insensitive enough to allow its army to embark on a suicide mission.

The period of military relaxation of tension often referred to as detente during in the late 1960s and early 1970s were characterized by several events which encouraged the superpowers to try to control the nuclear arms race and resolve some of the conflicts.

Consequently, a new form of alliances emerged which altered the pattern international relations beyond the two clearly opposed blocs when less powerful sates began to assert their independence.

The Cold War manifested to an unprecedented arms races, with the, invention and development of an endless list of weapons both conventional and nuclear weapons which include but not limited to jet fighters, bombers, nuclear weapons, chemical and biological weapons, surface-to-air missiles, antiaircraft artillery, regular artillery, surface to surface missiles (including SRBMs and cruise missiles), intercontinental ballistic missiles (including IRBMs) anti ballistic missiles, armoured vehicles, riffles, rocket propelled grenades, anti tank weapons, submarines and anti submarines warfare, submarine launched ballistic missiles, electronic and signal intelligence, reconnaissance aircraft, spy satellites, etc.

The advancement in military technology was capital intensive in terms of

manufacturing investments supported by the superpower. The Western Bloc was more favourably disposed to such investments and fielded weapons in many of these areas with superior effectiveness. This is because prior to the Cold War the United State enjoyed a robust economy and was ahead of all others in digital computers and technology

The Secret Services and Intelligences Agencies such as CIA (United States), KGB (Soviet Union) M16 (United Kingdom) BND (West Germany) and Stasi (East Germany) were solely responsible as the armies of these countries rarely had much participation in the Cold War. This is because the major world powers never entered into armed conflict overtly against each other. The Cold War strategies and mandates were often carried out by the secret service personnel in espionage who were either

civilian or military recruited on location or conscripted into the service. These personnel stand a great risk and were most vulnerable to extrajudicial killings or used as near prisoners of war when detected. Also, spy airplane and surveillance aircraft used for these kinds of assignment were shot down when suspected or detected.

The symbol of the Cold War struggle and hotspot of conflict was the city of Berlin in Germany. The Berlin wall represented the object of struggle, as it partitioned each of the power blocs. Berlin had a special status and was divided into four sectors occupied by the United States, Soviet Union, Britain, and France. Though, the city of Berlin was located within the heart of Soviet zone of occupation, the United States, Britain and France decided to merge their sector for economic development and convenience. Suffice it that, this merger and alliance may have contributed to the Soviet Union resolve to begin the Berlin Blockade.

One prominent feature of the Cold War strategy was the use of propaganda as a form of free information which gave a background to a buildup of tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States.

The Cold War periods was a movement of intense conflict to relative cooperation;

reciprocity – when friendly initiative to one is re ciprocated in kind, and action to reaction

As it were, both rivals were willing to shift their ideological positions whenever their national interests necessitate such inconsistence. Thus, the conflict progression between the United States and Soviet Union during the Cold displays a series of shifts between periods of conflict and cooperation. Each superpower‘s posture toward the other tended to be reciprocal, and, for most periods between 1945 and 1982, confrontation prevailed over cooperation (Kegley and Wittkopf, 2003).

Self Assessment Exercise

Critically examine the Cold War as a social conflict

4.0 CONCLUSION

The Cold War was not only a conflict of interest, ideology, and misperception, it was also a geopolitical conflict which was a product of international consequences of the socio – economic constitution of the Soviet power a nd the way it related to the world and expanded. The source of the geopolitical conflict is located in ideological preferences of each superpower like the economic conflict located in the Cold War conflict of interest. Furthermore, there was also the internal socio-economic conflict within each superpower bloc though in varying degrees which also dictated the tempo

of the external Cold War conflict. This point becomes more salient when considered in relation to the collapse of the Soviet Union as a result of domestic economic pressure it faced that brought about the decisive end of the Cold War.

5.0 SUMMARY

The unit discussed the origin of the term Cold War with reference to some definitions and how its evolved and locate it within the purview of social conflict. The unit discussed the character of the Cold War in its variation. The character becomes more visible when we inspect the superpower relations and motives. The unit specifically discussed and defined the various typologies of Cold War conflicts as social conflict.

Also, in this unit, we provided some intrinsic sociological, geopolitical and economic account of the Cold War conflict situations and the various responses.

6.0 TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT (TMA)

1 Discuss the Cold War in terms of its character?

2 Conflict is inevitable, was the cold war inevitable? If so, why and how, Discuss

7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS

Blackburn, Glenn (1989) The West and the World Since 1945 2 edition New York:

St. Martins Press

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and unabridged (2003) Harper Collins Publishers.

Collins, Randall (1991) ―Conflict Theory and the Advance of Macro-Historical Sociology‖ in G. Ritzer (ed) Frontiers of Social Theory, The new Synthesis. New York: Free Press

Coser, Lewis (1956). The Functions of Social Conflict. New York: Free Press

Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms , (2005). United States Department of Defence

Gaddis, John Lewis (2005). The Cold War: A New History . Penguin Press.Halle Louis J. (1967), The Cold War As History. New York: Harper & Row Publishers.

nd

Kegley, W Charles and Wittkopf Eugene R. (2001) World Politics: Trend and Transformation 8 edition New York: Bedford/St. Martin‘s

Nye, Joseph S. (2003), Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History. New York: Longman.

Paddington, Arch, (2003), Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty . Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky.

th