The Cold War and The Post-Cold War Periods Essay

The Cold War and The Post-Cold War Periods - Essay Example ost half of the twentieth century caused mutual suspicions, a series of global incidents, and heightened tensions resulted in world’s superpowers involving is disasters. Most Americans claim that it was Ronald Reagan who emphasized the ending of the Cold War. However, many historians point the Soviet Economy as the main factor that led to the end of the Cold War. The Soviet economy stagnated following the expensive race of weaponry. Due to this, Gorbatsjov was forced to change the Soviet economy using his â€Å"perestrojka† policies. This situation caused a definite economic fall. During this time, the Soviets found it difficult to maintain a firm grasp over eastern European satellite states. The policy of Gorbatsjov glasnost caused a lot of strain to the Eastern Europe. Therefore, afterwards, the Berlin Wall came down marking the ending of the Cold War. One of the main challenges that Europe faced after the end of the Cold War was security issues. The security environment of the European countries has been increasingly unstable and uncertain since the year 1989 when the Cold War ended. What is mainly affecting Europe after disintegration of USSR, Csechoslovakia breakup, and Yugoslavia crisis is the unravelling political arrangements that were established after the ending of the First World War (Mearsheimer 23). There are new territorial and ethnic issues that resulted from the Cold War. These issues have caused much destabilization in Europe and undermining efforts of creating new and stable security orders in Europe. Historically, after the end of the Cold War, most European states are unable to solve complex security problems by their own. After numerous enlargements, the Union of Europe currently has twenty seven members who have inevitably turned out to be international players. Additionally, despite the increment of EU and NATO membership, Cold War also brought political differences between Eastern and Western Europe (Phillips 54). On top of these