Post-Cold-War World. History sample

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The end of the Cold War was supposed to be the beginning of a new era which would be free from conflicts and dividing the world into two camps. The expected changes really took place, but the consequences and the further development of the world were far from positive expectations. The ideological confrontation divided the world into two camps; one supported the ideas of liberal democracy, another camp viewed the future of the world as the implementation of Marxism’s theories. Finally, the Cold War ended and everyone celebrated the victory of the democratic West over the communistic East. Nevertheless, it was not the beginning of a new world as one hoped when the Cold War ended. In fact, during the entire history of mankind, people have always been engaged in conflicts. The dividing of the world into different camps is rather a norm than misbalance. People started wars because of different religious views, they fought because of different political views and finally they were ready to start another war based on the ideological differences.

The end of the Cold War does not amount to the end of the conflicts; it supposed to be the end of one conflict and the beginning of a new one. The new problem that the world faced after the Cold War was globalization. Today, the conflict that divided the world into two camps is the opposition of cultural diversity and globalization. According to this fact, it can be said that the end of the Cold War was not the beginning of the world without conflicts; it was the move to another level of world’s development with new views, ideas, expectations and misunderstandings. Hence, the end of the Cold War signified the end of one conflict and the beginning of another.

The Clash of Civilization

The future conflict that a world might face will concern the differences in cultural views. In fact, the world of the future can be divided into seven different civilizations; they are Confucian, Western, Japanese, Slavic-Orthodox, Hindu, Islamic, Latin American and maybe African civilization (Huntington, 2007). All these civilizations differ from each other by their cultural origin, values, code of ethics, history, language, customs and traditions. The features of these differences are noticeable even today. For instance, in France, people have adequate attitude to those immigrants who arrive from Europe, but they have quite negative attitude to the immigrants from the Arabic countries. The similar situation occurs in the United States; people are open to the new investments from Canada or Europe, but they are against the investments from China or Japan.

This behavior can be explained from the cultural point of view. For instance, Europeans and Americans have much in common; as a rule they speak the same language, the majority of people in Europe speak English or German, having very close historical background and obeying almost the same traditions. When one speaks about similar traditions in the Western countries, first of all he/she means some social norms like values and ethics, but not the cultural traditions. Hence, people from Europe and America are quite similar, if one does not take into consideration some less significant differences. In the same way one may explain the cultural similarity in the Islamic countries. Despite the fact that they represent different countries with different political traditions, they are united by their religion which is opposite to the European one.

According to this fact, it can be said that the existing cultural difference shapes the borders of the world. These borders predetermine the power of one civilization in a particular region. However, any civilization cannot exist within its borders; it has a natural demand to extend. As a result, one civilization trespasses the borders of another civilization and this results in a clash of civilizations (Kumar, 2014). The differences between the world views of civilization are so significant that it will certainly lead to the conflict. Thus, the cultural diversity is a new problem that a world faced after the end of the Cold War.

Differences are always perceived as something bad, even if they do not bring any negative consequences. The majority of people have a hostile attitude to everything which is not clear or strange to them. However, differences should not be viewed as an enemy; they should be perceived as something which is unfavorable. Nevertheless, the human nature is more eager to start wars rather than to find a compromise for a peaceful co-existence.

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The Idea of a Globalized World

The clash of civilization has different names, but it still represents the same ideas that have always been followed by those who started wars and tried to force other people to share the same religion, ideology, beliefs or views. A new stage of a global conflict after the end of the Cold War is the idea of a globalized world (Fukuyama, 1989). This idea is widely promoted by the Western countries and the Eastern countries try to ignore it because it contradicts with their worldview, traditions and way of life. According to this fact, when one talks about the end of the Cold War, he/she notifies that it is only the change of name, but not the solution of the core problem. In fact, what one calls a globalized world is the same attempt to unite all countries and peoples under the reign of one ruling elite. The only difference is the methods and approaches which are used to achieve this goal. During the entire history of the mankind, all great conquerors had almost the same idea. Alexander the Great extended the borders of his Empire and was engaged in constant wars in order to enlarge power and unite all peoples under his rule. Genghis Khan united the separated tribes and captured the significant part of Eastern Europe. The Empire that he created had lasted for many centuries. Stalin and Hitler are two sides of the same coin; they had different ideologies, views on the social and world development, but they were motivated by the same idea, which was to establish one single regime in the entire world. All these conquerors had the idea of the global world, where they would be in the middle of this world and it would develop according to their principles and views. At that time, the most effective method of making other people share one’s ideas was to conquer them. The usage of military power predetermined the priority of one nation over another and gave a right to dictate its own demands.

The Cold War has shown that the technological development has achieved a great success in both camps. Thus, it means that the usage of military force in order to make another party accept the views of the particular camp is not only irrational, but also may turn into a global disaster to the entire planet, the threat of a nuclear war. In such conditions, the military conflict would bring more disadvantages for the victorious camp than advantages (Sundararajan, 2014). Thus, the end of this war was achieved by non-violent means, when one camp defeated another using the political and economic advantage. Nevertheless, it does not mean that one camp agrees to share the ideas of another because the end of the Cold War predetermines the end of the war, but not the problem which is to unite two camps with one idea. According to this fact, it can be said the idea of a globalized world is a new vision of the same problem that has existed for many centuries. Today, it has moved to a new stage, which is less violent, but the powerful tools are used to achieve it.


The end of the Cold War was expected to be the end of one of the biggest world conflicts. The opposition of two camps has been finished; however, it does not mean that the world has finally moved to another stage of its development which predetermines the peaceful co-existence. Unfortunately, the end of the Cold War signifies only the end of one conflict and the beginning of a new one. Today, religion and ideology that were used as the main tools of promoting the conflicts in the past have lost their power. In the modern world, it seems impossible to make Christians start a crusade against Muslims because the latter do not share their religion. Nevertheless, it does not mean that the conflict does not exist or cannot be introduced. The conflict of the present days is the issue of globalization. As always there are two camps; one camps wants to promote the idea of globalization all over the world, while another camp tries to resist it. Hence, speaking about the Cold War, one should notice that the Cold War really ended, but it does not mean that the motives or ideas that led to this war are eliminated. In fact people still try to dictate their vision to those who do not want accept it; the tools and approaches have changed, but the idea of a globalized world is still the same.

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