History 101 - Cold Waar

History 101

The Cold War was a state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in the West, the United States and its allies, and powers in the East, the Soviet Union and its allies. The end of the Cold War brought many changes in the world and with those changes came international issues. Two major international issues that have emerged since the end of the Cold War are the rise of China as an economic powerhouse and the new wave of international terrorism. These problems are just two that have impacted our world since the completion of the Cold War.

With the end of the Cold War came the emergence of China as a global economic giant (pg.683). With the rise of China as an economic power came the decline of many other countries economy’s, including the United States. The result of this change significantly added to the larger topic of changing global power balance, away from Western dominance that had functioned during the 1970s and 1980s. While the surge of China only became apparent in the 1980s and 1990s it had been prepared through the earlier decades. Many societies have been struggling for quite some time to escape the “western industrialization” and have a global balance. China slowly but surely was able to come out of the power imbalance and grow its economy to become one of the most powerful in the world. With the rise of China as an economic powerhouse came many disputes and arguments throughout the eastern and western world. Violence over trade and investment became prominent as did the United States economic decline and the presence of an economic recession. The end of the Cold War brought many international issues including the rise of China as a global economic giant.

Another source of violence and another international issue came about with the end of the cold war and the creation of a new wave of global terrorism (pg. 681). The new movement of international terrorism, built on political and religious currents, became very apparent in the 21st century. While terrorism was not new, new ways of attacking other countries and who the terrorists attack had come about. For example, terrorists now attacked key institutions and principles of globalization in some instances. Terrorists used to attack heads of political party’s but as governments improved security protections for political leaders, terrorists increasingly turned to more random