The End of the Cold war and the ‘New World Order’ 1980-2000
Multiple Choice Questions
Exam Questions
Discussion Questions
Why did the Soviet strategic position decline in the 1970s and 1980s?
Did Ronald Reagan “win” the Cold War?
Compare and contrast the role of crises in Afghanistan and Poland in the downfall of the Soviet bloc.
Why didn’t the Soviets respond to the Solidarity movement with force in the 1980s?
Why did Iraq invade Kuwait in 1990?
Contrast the American economic foundations in the 1990s with those in Russia.
Why was there talk of “the end of history” in the 1990s?
How did the end of the Cold war influence other conflicts in the 1990s?
Why did Yugoslavia disintegrate in the 1990s?
How did the United States shape the world community during the unipolar moment of the 1990s?
Exam Questions
Was the Cold War ended due to the role of prominent politicians or to structural factors, such as economics?
Why was there a “unipolar moment” in the 1990s?
How did the eclipse of the Soviet Union influence global politics in the 1990s?
Weblinks
http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/tear_down_this_wall.htm – text and audio of Reagan’s Tear Down this Wall speech 1987
http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/the_evil_empire.htm – text and audio of Reagan’s Evil Empire speech 1983
https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP09T00367R000300070001-8.pdf – text of CIA analysis on possible Soviet responses to the SDI initiative 1986
https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/nsd/nsd23.pdf – text of US national security directive in 1989 on eve of Eastern Bloc breakup
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB203/Document04.pdf – text of US negotiating document at Reykjavik summit in 1986
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113097 – text of Lech Walesa call for end of martial law in Poland 1986
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/112474 – text of notes for Gorbachev’s meeting with Politburo regarding Soviet policy towards Eastern Europe 1988
https://1997-2001.state.gov/statements/970605.html – Madeleine Albright statement on US foreign policy in the wake of Communism’s collapse 1997
The Avalon Project : United Nations Security Council Resolution 1160; March 31, 1998 (yale.edu) – UN Security Council Resolution on the situation in Bosnia 1998
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-nation-the-situation-somalia – Bush statement on situation in Somalia 1992
Bibliography
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Chiampan, Andrea, “The Reagan Administration and the INF Controversy, 1981-1983”, Diplomatic History 44:5 (2020) 860-884.
Conze, Eckart, Martin Klimke, & Jeremy Varon, eds., Nuclear Threats, Nuclear Fear and the Cold War of the 1980s (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020).
Donaghy, Aaron, The Second Cold War: Carter, Reagan, and the Politics of Foreign Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023).
Kieninger, Stephan, “The 1999 Kosovo War and the Crisis in U.S.-Russia Relations,” International History Review 43:4 (2021) 781-795.
Lundestad, Ingrid, “Turning Foe to Friend? US Objectives in Including Russia in Post-Cold War Euro-Atlantic Security Co-operation,” International History Review 38:4 (2016) 694-718.
Miles, Simon, Engaging the Evil Empire: Washington, Moscow, and the Beginning of the End of the Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2020).
Spohr, Kristina, “Helmut Schmidt and the Shaping of Western Security in the Late 1970s: The Guadeloupe Summit of 1979,” International History Review 37:1 (2015) 167-192.
Tyszkiewcz, Jakub, “Human Rights and the Jimmy Carter Administration’s Policy towards Poland, 1977-1980,” Cold War History 23:2 (2023) 307-325.
Uutela, Marjo, “Eyes on the North Atlantic Cooperation Council: To What Extent Was Germany Involved in the NATO Diplomacy Surrounding Finland and Sweden in the Early 1990s,” International History Review 45:2 (2023) 431-441.