End of the Cold War: What it was like, events and impact

We explain what the end of the Cold War was like, including the historical context, key events and global repercussions.

The end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the USSR were parallel phenomena.

What was the Cold War?

The Cold War was the process of political, economic and cultural confrontation between two blocks, led by the United States (Western or capitalist bloc) and the Soviet Union (Eastern or communist bloc).

The Cold War, which included military episodes in areas of influence of both powers but never directly confronted them on a battlefield, took place between the end of the Second World War in 1945 and the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1991.

The 1989 revolutions against communist rule in Eastern Europe were a historical event of multiple resonance. On the one hand, they constituted the collapse of the communist systems built after 1945On the other hand, they meant the loss of the zone of influence that the USSR had built after its victory against Nazism (and which many called the “Soviet empire”).

The Cold War, the confrontation that had marked international relations since the end of World War II, ended in a way that no one had dared to predict a few years earlier: with the collapse and disintegration of one of the contenders (the Soviet Union). The end of the Cold War and the disappearance of the Soviet Union were two parallel phenomena that radically changed the world.

The historical context

Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms in the USSR

Mikhail Gorbachev promoted a rapprochement between the USSR and the United States.

The Cold War ended because of the progressive collapse of the Soviet Union and the communist bloc following the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachevwho assumed the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1985.

The situation facing the new Kremlin leader was difficult: after long years of stagnation, the economy was on the verge of collapse and Soviet society was immersed in a real moral crisis, characterized by a lack of ideological commitment and general skepticism.

The challenge of the Strategic Defense Initiative US President Ronald Reagan had made Soviet leaders aware of their limitations in meeting US technological and military competition. The USSR urgently needed to reduce its military spending (which, according to sources, ranged from 16 to 28% of its budget) and to direct its resources towards alleviating the many shortcomings of the Soviet economy. For Gorbachev, the need for rapprochement with the United States was obvious.

Foreign policy reform came before the perestroika (economic restructuring) or the glasnost (transparency) in domestic politics. In October 1985, Gorbachev began visiting various Western capitals. In his first meeting with President Reagan in Geneva in November 1985, the Soviet leader raised the need for détente and the reduction of nuclear weapons.

Mikhail Gorbachev’s “new political thinking”

Gorbachev proclaimed at the XXVII Congress of the CPSU in 1986, through his advisor on international policy, Anatoli Dobrinin, what he called a “new political thinking” (New Myshlenie): the new world was characterized by “global interdependence”, henceforth It was necessary to forget the logic of the Cold War and seek cooperation and consensus in the direction of international relations.

Agreements with the US government on arms reduction followed one another in the following years. In December 1988, Gorbachev announced before the United Nations a unilateral reduction of 500,000 men in the Soviet armed forces and the withdrawal of troops and tanks from Eastern Europe.

Simultaneously, The Soviet leadership began a policy of disengagement from its commitments to its allies throughout the world: it gradually communicated to its allies (such as the Cuban, Nicaraguan and Ethiopian regimes, among others) the end of its military and economic support. It also committed to withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan, which it began to do in February 1989.

Throughout 1989, revolutions and transitions to democratic, parliamentary governments and market economies took place in Central and Eastern Europe, disintegrating the communist bloc, and From 1990 onwards, the disintegration of the Soviet Union itself began, which was completed when Gorbachev resigned on 25 December 1991 and the USSR ceased to exist. Shortly before, the Warsaw Pact, the military alliance that had bound the Soviet Union and the countries of the Eastern Bloc since 1955, had come to an end.

The events that precipitated the end of the Cold War

In Malta, Gorbachev and Bush heralded a new era in international relations.

Historians disagree on the exact moment when the Cold War ended. The main diplomatic events that marked the years 1989, 1990 and 1991 were:

• The Malta Summit between US President George Bush and Soviet leader Gorbachev, which for many historians marked the end of the Cold War. The two leaders met on the ship Maxim Gorky anchored off the coast of Malta on December 2 and 3, 1989. A few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which had occurred on November 9, the two leaders met to discuss the dizzying changes that Europe was experiencing and They officially proclaimed the beginning of a “new era in international relations”as well as the end of the tensions that had defined the Cold War. Bush declared his intention to help the USSR integrate into the international community, and called on American businessmen to “help Mikhail Gorbachev.” The Soviet leader solemnly proclaimed that “the world was ending an era of cold war (…) and entering a period of prolonged peace.”
• Other researchers point out that the end of the conflict took place on November 21, 1990, when the United States, the USSR and thirty other participating states at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe signed the Charter of Parisa document whose main purpose was to regulate international relations after the end of the Cold War. The Charter included a non-aggression pact between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. After signing the document, President Bush said: “We have closed a chapter in history. The Cold War is over.”
• Only two days before the Charter of Paris had been signed The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (November 19, 1990), which entailed a sharp reduction in troops and non-nuclear weapons on the European continent. After negotiations in Vienna in March 1989, it was agreed that both superpowers should reduce their troops in Europe to 195,000 men each. The assumption was that there would be 600,000 Soviet soldiers and 350,000 American soldiers.
• On January 16, 1991, an international coalition led by the United States began its military campaign to dislodge Iraqi troops who had invaded Kuwait. Soviet support for UN sanctions against Iraq, which preceded the outbreak of the Gulf Warwas agreed upon at the Helsinki summit held on 9 September 1990 between Bush and Gorbachev. This support was a palpable example of the end of American antagonism and supremacy.
• On July 1, 1991, following the 1989 revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe, and in the midst of the process of decomposition of the Soviet state, the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance signed in Warsaw in 1955, better known as Warsaw Pact officially ceased to existNATO remained the only major military alliance in the world.
• Finally, on July 31, 1991, Bush and Gorbachev signed the START I Treaty on strategic arms reduction in MoscowThis agreement was quickly superseded the following year, on 16 June 1992, by the drafting of the START II Treaty and its signing on 3 January 1993 by Bush and the new Russian leader, Boris Yeltsin. The two former rivals agreed to significant reductions in their nuclear arsenals.

In a very rapid process, The Soviet Union and the United States ended their long confrontation which had begun after the end of the Second World War. The order established at the Yalta Conference (1945) collapsed within a few months, before the astonished gaze of the world.

On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the Soviet Union ceased to exist, replaced by 15 independent states. US President Bush referred to the new situation as a “new world order.”

The end of the Cold War and its repercussions on the world

The collapse of the USSR left the United States as the only superpower world. Victory in the Cold War erased the memory of the defeat in Vietnam. From then on, Washington could play the role of “world policeman” without fear of the competition of another superpower. Moreover, the end of the Cold War and the new world situation had important repercussions in various parts of the world.

Repercussions in the Middle East

The Gulf War (1990-1991)

When Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq, invaded the small and wealthy state of Kuwait on August 2, 1990.aimed at mitigating the enormous losses caused by the war between Iraq and Iran between 1980 and 1988, did not take into account the new situation that had been created with the end of the Cold War.

Following the proposals of the United States, the UN condemned the aggressiondecided to apply economic sanctions to Iraq and, finally, authorized military intervention. The Soviet Union, a traditional ally of Iraq, did not have enough strength to veto the…