Effects of the Cold War

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History of the Cold War
Origins World War II Hiroshima and Nagasaki Eastern Bloc Western Bloc Iron Curtain
Periods Cold War (1947–1948) Cold War (1948–1953) Cold War (1953–1962) Cold War (1962–1979) Cold War (1979–1985) Cold War (1985–1991) Frozen conflicts
Related topics Arab Cold War Cold War in Asia Historiography List of related conflicts Post-Soviet conflicts Reagan Doctrine Second Cold War Timeline of events
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The effects of the Cold War on nation-states were numerous both economically and socially until its subsequent century. For example, in Russia, military spending was cut dramatically after 1991, which caused a decline from the Soviet Union's military-industrial sector. Such a dismantling left millions of employees throughout the former Soviet Union unemployed, which affected Russia's economy and military.^[1]

After Russia embarked on several economic reformations in the 1990s, it underwent a financial crisis. The Russian recession was more oppressive than the one experienced by United States and Germany during the Great Depression. Although Russian living standards worsened overall after the Cold War, the economy held an overwhelming growth after 1998. In early 2005, it became known that the economy had returned to its 1989 levels of per capita GDP.

The Cold War has continued to influence global politics after its end. The dissolution of the Soviet Union ended the Cold War and led to world that is widely considered as uni polar, with the United States being the sole remaining hyperpower, but many other rising powers hold great influence in the world and are certainly superpowers. The Cold War defined the political role of the United States after World War II. By 1989, the United States had military alliances with 50 countries and 1.5 million troops posted abroad in 117 countries, which institutionalized a global commitment to a huge permanent peacetime military-industrial complex and the large-scale military funding of science. In addition, the US led to the permanent creation of Peacetime Defense and the armaments industry, which was referred to in the farewell address of President Dwight Eisenhower.^[2]

Military expenditures by the US during the Cold War were estimated to have been roughly 8-9 trillion dollars, and nearly 100,000 Americans died during the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

In addition to the loss of life by uniformed soldiers, millions died in the superpowers' proxy wars around the globe, most notably in Southeast Asia. Most proxy wars and subsidies for local conflicts ended along with the Cold War. The incidence of interstate wars, ethnic wars, revolutionary wars, as well as refugees and disagreements between the leaders of the nations that were affected by the warfare, declined sharply after the Cold War.

The legacy of the Cold War is not easily erased, as many of the economic and social tensions that were exploited to fuel competition in parts of the Third World have remained acute. The breakdown of state control in a number of areas formerly ruled by communist governments has produced new civil and ethnic conflicts, particularly in the former Yugoslavia. In Eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War has ushered in an era of economic growth and a large increase in the number of liberal democracies, but in other parts of the world, such as Afghanistan, independence was accompanied by state failure.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall,^[3] the annulment of the Warsaw Pact, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Cold War was officially terminated, particularly in the deployment of nuclear-armed ballistic missiles and defensive systems. Because there was no formalized treaty ending the Cold War, the former superpowers have continued to various degrees to maintain and even to improve or modify existing nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Moreover, other nations that have not been previously acknowledged as nuclear states have developed and tested nuclear-explosive devices.

The risk of nuclear and radiological terrorism by possible subnational organizations or individuals is now a concern, but no incidents of nuclear terrorism has occurred yet because of the efforts of counterterroist organisations.