Cold War

Post-Cold War World

Post-Cold War World

Introduction

Twenty years have passed since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the world today has become more free and open. The collapse of the Soviet Union caused a cascade of political and economic developments that were previously rarely been seen in human history. In addition, this applies to the vast territory of the former Soviet republics and the buffer states of Central and Eastern Europe to Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Far East. According to Freedom House, in 1990, were the world's 69 electoral democracies, and now their 115. The increase is more than 60%. In many countries, a centralized planned economy and stifled innovation and entrepreneurship. Today, economic liberalization, albeit imperfect, but it has created new opportunities and led to an increase in revenues, which twenty years ago was unthinkable. However, these achievements, we often forget about the most important phenomenon, which occurred with the collapse of the Soviet Union and that is the world today has become much safer.

To many observers it sounds like heresy. In the post-Soviet world are constant unending civil and international conflicts. Suffice it to recall the Gulf War in 1991, ethnic cleansing and bloody civil war in former Yugoslavia, genocide in Rwanda, the endless fighting in Congo, Sudan and Somalia, the September 11 attacks and the ongoing U.S. war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Politicians in the U.S. has come out with warnings about how dangerous and precarious world in which we live.

Moreover, unless the Cold War did not prevent large-scale conflict between the great powers, and not restrained inter-ethnic and inter-ethnic tensions? The threat of nuclear conflict, of course, helped to prevent a third world war, but it did not stop dozens of states to the terrible and fierce battle. On the Korean peninsula, Southeast Asia, throughout the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and across sub-Saharan Africa conflicts during the Cold War was commonplace. Many of these conflicts were aggravated by the intrigues and machinations of rival superpowers with each other. In fact, the fall of the Soviet Union has accelerated, not slowed the global movement towards a more secure, and stable world. The reality is that today wars are less frequent than before. In addition, when war did occur, they become less deadly for both military and civilian populations. On average the war in the 21st century, killed 90% fewer people than in the average conflict of the 1950s. Over the past 10 years, deaths in the war were less than in any of the decades of the last century. The world has sixty-odd years; there was a major military conflict. This is the longest period of sustained peace between the great powers for centuries. Finally, today the main cause of civilian deaths is not a state, and rebel groups. Of course, this alarming trend, but it is fundamentally different from that of the 20th century, when the country inventing newer and more sophisticated methods of killing millions of its ...