Cold War Geopolitics

IR # 202: Introduction to Political Geography

Dr. A.S.M. Ali Ashraf

Associate Professor
Department of International Relations
University of Dhaka
Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh

Email: aliashraf79@gmail.com
Lecture Outline
 Definition of Cold War
 International Politics during the Cold War
 Rival Military Alliances
 U.S. Foreign Policy during the Cold War
 Hot Events during the Cold War
 Nuclear Arms Race
 Major Arms Control and Disarmament Agreements

 End of Cold War

 Role of Glasnost and Perestroika

 Francis Fukuyama’s Analysis on the End of Cold War

 Review of End of History

2
Required Readings
 Kennan, George F. (1947). The Sources of Soviet Conduct.
Foreign Affairs, Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 566-582. Reprinted in The
Geopolitics Reader, edited by G.O. Tuathail, S. Dalby, and P.
Routledge (London: Routledge, 2006), pp. 78-81.

 Zhdanov, Andrei (1947). Soviet Policy and World Politics. The

International Situation (Moscow: Foreign Language Publishing
House), Reprinted in The Geopolitics Reader, edited by G.O.
Tuathail, S. Dalby, and P. Routledge (London: Routledge, 2006),
pp. 82-84.

 Fukuyama, Francis (1989). The End of History? The National

Interest, No. 68, Reprinted in The Geopolitics Reader, edited by
G.O. Tuathail, S. Dalby, and P. Routledge (London: Routledge,
2006), pp. 107-114.

3
Cold War
 Ideological confrontation between Soviet
Communism and Western Capitalism

 Geopolitical struggle between U.S. and former

Soviet Union for world dominance

 Nuclear arms race dominated the superpower

confrontation during the cold war
 The development of nuclear weapons is described as the
‘most notable’ and ‘most dramatic’ legacy of the WWII,
as it brought enormous challenges to international
politics
4
Mapping the geopolitical competition

5
Key features of Cold War
 Rival military alliances:
 NATO (1949-present): The United States committed itself to
the security of Western Europe against any potential Soviet
aggression; Collective security became the main principle of
the military alliance
 Member States:
 1949: Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, UK, Italy, Portugal,
Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Canada, USA;
 1952: Greece, Turkey;
 1955: West Germany
 Warsaw Pact (1955-1991): The USSR committed itself to
the security of pro-Soviet Eastern European countries through
a mutual defense treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and
Mutual Assistance, against any potential U.S.-led aggression
 Member States: Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, East Germany, Hungary,
Poland, Romania, USSR

6
 U.S. Foreign Policy during the Cold War:

 Truman Doctrine (1947):

 U.S. must support “free people who are resisting
attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by
outside powers”; reference to Greece and Turkey

 Containment Policy (1947):

 Coined and popularized by U.S. diplomat George F.
Kennan; Key assumption: Soviet Union perceives itself
in a state of war with the capitalist world, and seeks to
expand its influence as a security strategy; Hence, the
U.S. should ‘contain’ Soviet communism and
expansionism
7
Hot Events during Cold War
 1949: Communist forces came to power in China under Mao
Tse Tung’s leadership
 1950-1953: Korean War; The United States and the United
Nations got involved in defense of non-communist South
Korea, against North Korean ‘aggression’
 Note: Today, the demilitarized zone (DMZ), formalizing the
boundary between South and North Korea, is perhaps the last
remaining symbol of Cold War
 1956: Soviet intervention caused bloodsheds in Hungary to
install a pro-communist and pro-Soviet government

 1959-1975: Vietnam War [the biggest U.S. foreign policy

blunder?]

 1979-1989: Soviet-Afghan wars

 Soviet troops in Afghanistan vs. Afghan Resistance movement
supported by Pakistan, USA, Saudi Arabia
8
Soviet and American Nuclear Arms Race
American and Soviet Nuclear Bombs and Warheads, 1945-1990
12000

10000

8000

6000 USA
USSR

4000

2000

0
1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990

9
Principal Arms Control & Disarmament
Agreements
Treaty Purpose of Agreement Signed Parties

Geneva Protocol Chemical Weapons: Ban use 1925 100+

Limited Test Ban Treaty Bans atmospheric, underwater, 1963 100+

outer-space nuke tests
Nuclear Non- Limits spreads of nukes 1968 100+
Proliferation Treaty

Biological Weapons Bans production/use 1972 80+

Convention

SALT I Limits strategic arms 1972 USA-USSR

ABM Treaty Limits anti-ballistic missiles 1972 USA-USSR

SALT II Limits strategic arms 1979 USA-USSR

Intermediate Range Bans two categories of land- 1987 USA-USSR

Nuclear Forces Treaty based missiles

START I Reduces strategic arms 1990 USA-USSR 10

End of Cold War
Role of Gorbachev’s Glasnost and Perestroika

 Glasnost (Political Openness):

 Promotion of the principle to criticize
 Loosening of controls on media and publishing
 Freedom of worship
 Perestroika (Economic Restructuring):
 New Legislature (Parliament): two-third members will be
elected on public voting system
 Creation of an executive presidency
 Ending the leading role for the Communist Party
 Enterprise law, allowing state enterprises to sell their products
on the open market
 Joint Ventures Law, allowing foreign companies to own Soviet
enterprises
11
 An Analysis of the Truman Doctrine,
Containment Policy, and Brezhnev
Doctrine

12
About Harry S. Truman
 Education:
 No undergraduate degree

 Professional Career:
 Served for U.S. National Guard, U.S. Army and U.S. Army
Reserve
 Fought during the W.W.I.
 Served briefly as U.S. Vice President; assumed presidency
after President Roosevelt died

 Major U.S. Foreign Policy decisions:

 Approved to the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan; Assisted
the creation of UN; supported the Marshall Plan to rebuild
Europe; got the U.S. forces involved in Korean War
13
The Truman Doctrine
 The Truman Doctrine constitutes an important aspect of
U.S. containment policy in Europe. President Truman
offered to support the two countries in the amount of
US$400 million.

 In his opening address to a joint session of Congress, U.S.

President Truman said “The gravity of the situation which
confronts the world today necessitates my appearance
before a joint session of the Congress. The foreign policy
and the national security of this country are involved. One
aspect of the present situation, which I wish to present to
you at this time for your consideration and decision
concerns Greece and Turkey.”

14
 Truman continued..
 “I believe it must be the policy of the United States to
support free peoples who are resisting attempted
subjugation by armed minorities or by outside
pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to
work out their own destinies in their own way. I believe
that our help should be primarily through economic and
financial aid, which is essential to economic stability and
orderly political processes.”

 Truman tried to persuaded the Congressmen by saying that

the United States committed US$34,100 million during the
WWII. The US$400 million commitment to Greece and Turkey
is only one-tenth of 1% of that investment.
15
About George F. Kennan
 Education:
 Bachelor degree from Princeton University

 Professional Career:
 Served with the U.S. Foreign Service
 Created the Policy Planning Staff as the U.S. State
Department’s [U.S. Foreign Ministry’s] internal think tank

 Major U.S. Foreign Policy decisions:

 Kennan wrote an article in 1947 titled “The Sources of Soviet
Conduct” in Foreign Affairs journal under the pseudonym X.
 He was the architect of President Truman’s containment policy

16
Containment Policy
 George F. Kennan, the doyen of American
diplomatic community, wrote in a secret cable:

 [I]t is clear that the main element of any United

States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that
of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant
containment of Russian expansive tendencies. It is
important to note, however, that such a policy has
nothing to do with outward histrionics: with threats of
blustering or superfluous gestures of outward
“toughness.”

17
 Kennan also said:

 It is clear that the United States cannot expect in the

foreseeable future to enjoy political intimacy with the
Soviet regime. It must continue to regard the Soviet
Union as a rival, not a partner, in the political arena. It
must continue to expect that Soviet policies will reflect
no abstract love of peace and stability, no real faith in
the possibility of a permanent happy coexistence of the
Socialist and capitalist worlds, but rather a cautious,
persistent pressure toward the disruption and weakening
of all rival influence and rival power.

18
About Andrei Zhdanov
 Political Career:
 Zhdanov was a member of the Bolshevik Party [Social
Democratic Labour Party] of the Soviet Union
 He led the cultural policy of the Soviet Union

 Major U.S. Foreign Policy contribution:

 In 1947 Zhdanov played an important role to establish
the Cominform as a platform to facilitate cooperation
among the communist parties in Europe.
 He wanted to purge the Soviet culture of its foreign
influence

19
Zhdanov Doctrine
 Andrei Zhdanov was central committee secretary
of Soviet Communist Party. He argued that:
 Soviet foreign policy proceeds from the fact of the
coexistence for a long period of the two systems –
capitalism and socialism. From this it follow that
cooperation between the USSR and countries with other
systems is possible, provided that the principle of
reciprocity is observed and that obligations once
assumed are honored. …the strategical pans of the
United States envisage the creation in peacetime of
numerous bases and vantage grounds situated at
great distance from the American continent and
designed to be used for aggressive purposes
against the USSR and the countries of the new
democracy. 20
 Zhdanov further stresses that:
 Economic expansion is an important supplement to
the realization of America’s strategical plan…American
economic “assistance” pursues the broad aim of bringing
Europe into bondage to American capital.
 Lastly, the aspiration to world supremacy and the
anti-democracy policy of the United States involve an
ideological struggle.
 The unfavorable reception which the Truman
doctrine was met with accounts for the necessity of the
appearance of the Marshall Plan which is a more
carefully veiled attempt to carry through the same
expansionist policy.

21
 Zhdanov suggests that:
 The need for mutual consultation and
voluntary coordination of action between
individual parties has become particularly
urgent at the present junction when continued
isolation may lead to a slackening of mutual
understanding, and at times, even to serious
blunders.

22
Brezhnev Doctrine
 Leonid Brezhnev was one of the longest
serving general secretary of Communist
Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). He
claimed:

 “When forces that are hostile to socialism try

to turn the development of some socialist
country towards capitalism, it becomes not
only a problem of the country concerned, but
a common problem and concern of all
socialist countries.”

 Critique: The doctrine retrospectively

legitimized Soviet intervention in
Czechoslovakia
23
 Analysis of Francis Fukuyama

24
Francis Fukuyama
 Education:
 BA in classics from Cornell
 Ph.D. in political science from Harvard

 Teaching & Research:

 Worked with RAND Corporation
 Taught at George Mason University, Johns Hopkins
 Senior Fellow at Stanford University

 Major Book:
 The End of History and the Last Man [Free Press, 1992]

25
The End of History?
 According to Francis Fukuyama, the end of Cold War
represents the “triumph of the West” of the “Western idea”
 In his view, western liberalism has emerged as the only
viable alternative ideology
 Fukuyama said:
 “What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or
the passing of a particular period of postwar history, but the end of
history as such: that is, the end point of mankind’s ideological
evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the
final form of human government.”

 Fukuyama acknowledges that the idea of ‘end of history’ is

borrowed from Karl Marx who was influenced by George
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

26
Hegel’s historicism
 According to Fukuyama, German philosopher Hegel was the
first to coin the idea of end of history.
 For Hegel, the battle of Jena in 1806, in which Napoleon’s
French army defeated Prussia marked the end of history in
the following ways:
 It nearly universalized the ideals of the French Revolution-liberty and
equality
 It promoted the basic principles of the liberal democratic state

 According to Russian-origin French scholar Alexandre

Kojeve, the state that emerges (at the end of history) is
liberal insofar the universal right to freedom is recognized
and democratic insofar the consent of the governed is given
primacy.
27
Challenges to liberalism in the 20th Century
 Liberalism confronted two challenges in the 20th
century:
 Fascism (and Nazism): Fascism lost its appeal after
WWII due to its ultranationalist expansionism and its
promise of prolonged conflict which eventually faced a
military defeat.
 Communism: Marx believed that the gaps between
capitalist and working classes represents a fundamental
contradiction of the liberal society. But, this class issue
was overcome by the egalitarianism of modern
America. The egalitarian and moderately redistributionist
American society had nothing to do with economic
inequality.

28
 U.S.-Russia Competition after the Cold
War

29
Understanding U.S. Global Strategy

30
31
Soviet Influence in the World

32