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What Role Did Ideas Play In The Cold War Essay

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For example, neither realists nor liberals predicted the end of the Cold War, nor could they explain it satisfactorily after the fact. Constructivists emphasize the importance of ideas and culture in shaping both the reality and the discourse of international politics. They stress the ultimate subjectivity of interests and their links to changing identities. There are many types of constructivists, but they all tend to agree that neither realism nor liberalism paints a true picture of the world and that we need not just explanations of how things are, but explanations of how they come to be. Constructivists have focused on important questions about identities, norms, culture, national interests, and international governance.5 They believe that leaders and other people are …show more content…

For example, both slavery in the nineteenth century and racial apartheid in South Africa in the twentieth century were accepted by most states once upon a time. But both later came to be widely condemned. Constructivists ask: Why the change? What role did ideas play? Will the practice of war go the same way someday? What about the concept of the sovereign state? The world is full of political entities such as tribes, nations, and nongovernmental organizations. Only in recent centuries has the sovereign state been dominant. Constructivists suggest that concepts such as “state” and “sovereignty” that shape our understandings of world politics and that animate our theories are, in fact, socially constructed; they are not given. Nor are they permanent. Even our understanding of “security” evolves. Traditional international relations theories used to understand security strictly in terms of preventing violence or war among states, but in today’s world “human security”—a relatively new concept—seems at least as problematic. Moreover, a wider range of phenomena have become “securitized,” that is, treated politically as dire threats warranting

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In the aftermath of World War II, growing tensions and rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union resulted in the Cold War. Having lasted for much of the second half of the 20th century, this state of economical, political and propaganda-based confront, with a lack of military conflict and open hostility, is considered a turning point in modern history. The root cause of the conflict was fundamentally the belief in completely opposing ideologies. The confrontation between capitalism and communism led to an international power struggle that left the world on the brink of disaster.

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Some of the events and ideological conflicts that promoted the cold war were. They had the Vietnam war and arab-israeli wars during this time. The policy of Containment. Some of the ideological conflicts were that America and the Soviet Union were never friends before the war ended they already hated each other some of the reason for this hatred were because United states took to long to enter the war and help them. One of the main reason for the conflicts that promoted the war was that the united states did not like the communists and the USSR did not like the capitalists which caused trust issues between both the country.

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The cold war was marked by the existence of political and economic enmity between U.S. and the Soviet Union in 1945 to 1991. From the primary sources we discussed in class, it is clear that the rivalry between these two super powers was because of political and economic competition. The competition was between the communist of the Soviet Union together with its allies and the democratic capitalism of U.S. together with its allies. In addition, the rise of the cold war between 1945 and 1991 was as result diplomatic and military competition between the two nations. The period of cold war was characterized by remarkable increase in military spending, increased tensions, hyperbolic rhetoric by the two leaders of the nations and millions of World

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History and Hawthorne Herman Melville once said that “for spite of all the Indian-summer sunlight on the hither side of Hawthorne’s soul, the other side-like the dark half of the physical sphere-is shrouded in a blackness, ten times black….”(Cain 667). This quote would no doubt, peek many peoples interest in Nathanial Hawthorne and Melville’s reason for saying such a thing. In order to find out what Melville was alluding to in his quote, it is important to look at the background of Hawthorne, and how his background influenced how he wrote. There are many different aspects of Hawthorne’s past that can are seen in his different works. Much like all writers background information can be an important factor to look at, when examining a text, and

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The signs that a war ended prevailed in 1945; the world settled into the quiet rhythm that comes while slowly piecing itself back together, letting the dust settle after World War II, a war that would change history forever. Out of the dust would rise two superpowers: the young, communist U.S.S.R. and the well-respected, democratic U.S. Both would strive to assert their dominance in this newly reorganized world, resulting in the longest-lasting nonviolent war in history. The war would involve close to forty years of high-stakes espionage, diplomatic relations, and nuclear threats, but would end with little struggle under new leadership. Despite an uneventful end, four primary stimulating factors prolonged the Cold War: small skirmishes called “proxy wars,” such as the Korean and Vietnamese Wars, the Arms Race, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and tensions in Germany.

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Some historians believe the Cold War was inevitable because of the hostilities from both America and the Soviet Union after World War II. America believed that the USSR was an expansionist country trying to spread an evil, communistic idea throughout the world. Although the countries never directly fought against each other, as they only fought in proxy wars, there was still extreme conflict. The United States responded to the Soviets actions in Germany, Europe, and their national actions. These responses were justifiable, or so many Americans at the time believed.

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The current work is meant to explain the differences and similarities between the most dominant theories in international relations, Realism and Liberalism, both theories have some similarities and differences but much more important and interesting is to discuss and explain what differs and makes similar both theories. Conflicts and wars, Similarities and differences between Realism and Liberalism: Both Liberalism and Realism believes that there is no world government that can prevent countries to go to war on one another. For both theories military power is important and both Realism and Liberalism can understand that countries can use military power to get what they need or want. Also, both theories are conscious that without military

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Constructivists reject such a one-sided material focus. They argue that the most important aspect of international relations is social, not material. Constructivists have demonstrated that ‘ideas matter’ in international relations. They have shown that culture and identity help define the interests and constitute the actors in IR. All students of IR should be familiar with the important debates raised by constructivists, about basic social theory and about the different ways in which ideas can matter in international relations.

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The international relations schools of thought known as Realism and Idealism identify specific and similar characteristics of actors in the conceptual development of their theories. While many of these characteristics can be generalized as being synonymous with the two theories, both theories make a separate distinction in what specifically constitutes an actor. In Realism, the term “actor” refers directly and solely to the state: a combination of government, leaders, decision-makers, etc, that act as a unitary entity to promote the interests of the state. Idealists, however, expand on what constitutes an actor to include both the state and people. Not only do the principles of Idealism assert that the state and people should be considered actors, in fact, both they must be viewed as actors.

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The most important and broad-reaching levels of security are those at the global, regional, and local levels. Each level of analysis requires its own interpretation of security risks, and each has complications that affect both few and many peoples. The elephant in the room when analyzing security strategy at each of these levels is that fact that there is no hierarchy between nations, and this state of anarchy means that inevitably, security concerns are subject to the unregulated cooperation of other nations. Uncertainty; leaving security to chance, is the most unfortunate consequence of the freedom provided by this system of nation-states. We cannot rely on other states whether friend or enemy to cooperate consistently nor as we anticipate.

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