Today
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Updates: Kenya and Chad
Simulation: your country assignments
The Cold War, 1948-1989/91
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Causes of the Cold War
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Cuban Missile Crisis
The Victims of the Cold War: Africa, Asia, Latin America
End of Cold War
Levels of analysis
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Where causes are found:
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International level of analysis – third image
Domestic level of analysis – second image
Individual level of analysis – first image
Realism
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Neorealism or defensive realism
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International level/third image
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Anarchy as a structure of international politics
Power as a means to security
Classical realism or offensive realism
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Individual level/first image
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Human nature
Power as an end in itself
Liberal Institutionalism
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Institutionalism
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International level/third image
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Interdependence
Liberalism
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Domestic level/second image
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Business and other interest groups
Identity/Idealism
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Identity perspective
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Idealism
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Role of ideas and norms
Constructivism
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Focuses on how identities shape global politics
Focuses on how actors perceive of their
environment
Transnationalism
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Role of NGOs/across all levels of analysis
Keenan’s ‘long telegram’
Six points (written in 1946, Nau, p. 118/9)
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Soviet Union was confrontational.
Insecurity drives Soviet aggression and expansion.
Soviet Union will expand its power globally.
Soviet Union will seek allies abroad.
US must contain Soviet expansion.
Victory will depend on improving U.S. society (civil rights),
not on spreading our democratic ideas.
Which theory is closest to Keenan’s view?
What caused the Cold War ?
International
level
Domestic
level
Individual
level
Realism
Liberal
Institutionalism
Idealism/
Identity
Power vacuum after
WWII; nuclear
weapons and MAD
cause repeated
crises to test
credibility (e.g,
Cuban Missile
Crisis)
Weak global
institutions:
blockage in the United
Nations; failure to
integrate
economically
Cultural and
ideological
differences: both
systems claimed
global dominance;
identities created
enemies, not just
rivals;
Incompatible
economic systems;
lack of trade (Marshall
Plan limited to WE)
US and Soviet
Union both
projected values
abroad;
Stalin
Realist account of the Cold War
Structural explanation (systemic/third/international level of analysis)
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The power vacuum in Europe after WWII created a
security dilemma and forced both nations to enter an
arms race.
Classical/offensive realism (Nau, p. 121):
 Communism as a global ideology
 Capitalism as a global ideology
Adding nuclear weapons
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MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction
The Cuban Missile Crisis
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Soviet Union: Cuba as the equivalent of Western
Europe (close to the enemy territory)
Soviet Union: Trading Berlin for Cuba
Nuclear weapons transform world politics by focusing
attention on credibility, rather than ability. Risk of total
destruction increases.
Why the crisis ended
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Realism: because the US threatened credibly with total destruction.
Liberal institutionalism: trade of interests (Turkey)
Identity/Idealism: pure luck that both sides came to their senses
Why did the Cold War end
(peacefully)
?
Realism
Liberal
Institutionalism
Idealism/
Identity
International
level
Military and
economic collapse
of the Soviet Union;
US military victory
without a ‘hot’ war
Détente; economic
cooperation across
the divide (CSCE,
disarmament.
Helsinki Accords
1975)
Cultural
convergence; ideas
of human rights and
freedom “win”;
socialization
Domestic
level
1980s: Ronald
Reagan lead the
U.S. into second
Cold War
Economic crisis in
Soviet bloc;
attractiveness of
trade with capitalist
nations
Strengthening of
political dissidents;
Soviet ideology
weakens
Individual
level
Gorbachev factor,
glasnost and
perestroika; cultural
exchanges;
Adding Identity
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World politics is not just about material
capabilities, rational interest calculation, and
economic interdependence.
 A struggle for the values of common humanity
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Common human survival in the face of nuclear
destruction
Fundamental struggle between capitalism and
socialism
What ended the Cold War?
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Emerging common framework of understanding
Gorbachev factor: shift in ideologies