War in Cold War and After

Ayu N. Prasanti1

War according to Carl Von Clausewitz is nothing more than a duel on larger scale. Further,
what made up a war is countless fight that never ends. Then Clausewitz came to a conclusion
that the aim of war is to throw the opponent incapable of further resistance and by that, doing
what we want them to do. And to be able to do so, the way is to make the opponent
powerless. Another definition war presented by webster dictionary that war is a state of open
and declared, hostile armed conflict between states or nations, or a period of such conflict
(www.iep.utm.edu, accesed on 2nd of October 2010).

According to the definition above, war has an element of military force exercise. And in this
state,cold war wasn’t count as a war. But yet, many political scientist sees cold war as big
history of war in international relation. The term “Cold War” was first used in 1947 by
Bernard Baruch, senior advisor to Harry Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, in
reference to the frequently occurring and exacerbating crises between the United States and
the former Soviet Union, despite having fought side-by-side against Nazi Germany in the
Second World War (www.globalsecurity.org, accesed on 2nd of October 2010). Cold war
started after Wold War II between 1945-1948 and ended on 1989 which was marked by the
fall of the Berlin Wall (www.globalsecurity.org, accesed on 2nd of October 2010). What
makes Cold War unique is that this war involves no straight military force between USA and
USSR, the contendant of Cold War.

It is perhaps the traumatic feeling that World War II causes that led USA and USSR involved
in a fight with no military forces involved. Cold War only involves a detterence of military
power between USA and USSR. The detterence in Cold War resulted on the balancing
hegemony in international politics constelation and polarization of it.

Unlike in Cold War time, war after Cold War ended return to the definition given by
Clausewitz,exercise of military forces. Though wars after Cold War didn’t turned to be as
massive as World War II, it still causes many loses to fighting party. Be it loses in
lifes,infrastructure,and economic to both side.

1
Author is a student of International Relation from Airlangga University.
Sources :

- Clausewits, Von Carl. On War. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1993,pp 83-101, 731-
737
- http://www.iep.utm.edu/war/, accesed on 2nd of October 2010
- http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/cold_war.htm, accesed on 2nd of October
2010