The world recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall which not only led to the reunification of Germany, the end of communism in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union, but also to a profound change in international affairs and an end to the ideological battle between the US and Russia (the USSR’s successor).
There is no doubt that the end of the Cold War had the most profound (and positive) effect in Europe. Germany was once again united under democratic rule and democracy returned to the countries of Eastern Europe, most of which then joined the European Union and Nato.
German unification has been an unqualified success and today Germany is Europe’s economic powerhouse, the leading member of the eurozone and an increasingly confident player on the world stage.
The end of the Cold War changed the nature of international politics
European Union and Nato enlargement has also been a success which provided stability and security to former Soviet bloc countries as well as the Baltic states. Croatia and Slovenia, two former Yugoslav Republics, also joined Nato and the EU, while Albania joined Nato and Malta and Cyprus joined the EU.
Unfortunately Yugoslavia went through a bad phase in the 1990s, unlike its fellow former communist countries, when it was plagued by ethnic conflicts which led to its breakup into six independent Republics.
‘The New World Order’ which US President George H. Bush referred to during the December 1989 summit with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in Malta did not seem to apply to this country.
Sectarian wars, mainly in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo (then still part of Serbia) led to the deaths of thousands of people and ultimately led to Nato intervention in the latter two countries to restore order and stop acts of genocide.
The EU and Nato were initially at a loss on how to deal with the Yugoslav crisis – which was the alliance’s first major test after the end of the Cold War – but in both Bosnia and Kosovo it was US leadership that paved the way for Nato action, showing that indeed the military alliance still had an important role to perform. Over the years Nato has also conducted military operations in Afghanistan and Libya, as well as anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia.
The ‘New World Order’, however, clearly failed in countries like Rwanda – where one million people were killed in acts of genocide in 1994 – as well as in Syria and Sudan. One positive aspect, nevertheless, has been the setting up of the International Criminal Court as well as special UN courts to try those responsible for crimes against humanity and genocide.
As a result of the end of the Cold War a number of important arms control treaties were signed between the US and Russia, covering both conventional forces and nuclear weapons. There is no doubt that despite the many conflicts around the world we no longer live under the shadow of annihilation in a thermonuclear war between Russia and the US.
One must also not forget that the end of the Cold War enabled the international community to work together to end the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in 1990 when the UN Security Council – with the consent of the Soviet Union – authorised the use of force to oust Saddam Hussein’s army from the Gulf state.
Having said that, it is a sad fact that Russia today is not a democracy and like many of the former Soviet Republics, has developed an authoritarian system of government. Post-Soviet Russia was ruled, until 2000, by President Boris Yeltsin, whose swift transfer of the economy to a rather savage form of capitalism, as well as his overdependence on a number of oligarchs and the perception of him being too weak in confronting the West, led to resentment among the population.
Vladimir Putin, Yeltsin’s successor, set out to change all this. Democracy was slowly but surely eroded and a Nationalist agenda formulated. Putin, a former KGB officer, who has never come to terms with his country’s Communist past, clearly wanted to restore Russia’s former glory and respect and re-establish its sphere of influence. The Putin doctrine was evident in the 2008 invasion of Georgia and the recent incursion into Eastern Ukraine and annexation of Crimea as well as Moscow’s stubborn backing of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
The end of the Cold War also changed the nature of international politics. The world is more integrated economically, relations between countries are no longer seen through the lenses of the Russia-US rivalry, Pakistan became the first Islamic nuclear power, Iran is emerging as very influential regional power, China is today the second largest world economy, Latin America has emerged from the shadow of the United States, and a number of African countries – no longer pawns of the superpowers in the Cold War – have shown that they have much potential for economic development.
The fall of the Berlin Wall also coincided with the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. A vicious civil war then followed which was ended by the Taliban taking over in 1996, who were then ousted by the US in the aftermath of the New York September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Jihadism, al-Qaeda and the rise of Osama bin Laden, have dominated much of the news of the post-Cold War era. Some see the roots of al-Qaeda as a product of the Cold War when the CIA, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia supported the mujahedeen and other Muslims in the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. These fighters then became radicalised, turned against the West and sought other wars to take part in.
This is only a small part of the story. The mujahedeen in Afghanistan were a diverse group of fighters, Bin Laden was inherently anti-Western and became even more so when Saudi Arabia allowed Western troops to be stationed on its territory during the first Gulf War, and each particular country has its own set of circumstances which lead to the growth of jihadism. Iraq, for example, saw an explosion of jihadism as a result of the ill-fated invasion by US-led forces; al-Qaeda was never present in that country under Saddam Hussein.
The end of the Cold War brought with it hopes for a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. The 1991 Madrid Conference, held soon after the liberation of Kuwait, marked the first open talks between Israel and Palestinian representatives, and was co-sponsored by the US and the Soviet Union.
This led to Oslo Peace Accords being signed at the White House in 1993, a landmark treaty which was meant to have led to the creation of a Palestinian State. Despite much US-led diplomacy over the last 20 years this has not been achieved and the two sides seem very far away from any agreement.
Although the collapse of the Soviet Union led many to believe that the Communist regime in Cuba would collapse – the massive annual subsidies from Moscow disappeared – this has not happened, although there has been a slight opening up of the economy in Havana.
North Korea, on the other hand, remains totally time-warped and lives as if the Cold War never ended. It now possesses nuclear weapons, continues to oppress its people in a most totalitarian fashion, adheres to a doctrinaire form of Stalinism and preaches a ferocious hatred of the US.