• International politics underwent dramatic changes after the Second World War, as European domination declined and non-European powers emerged.
• Until the war, European states like Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands controlled global political events.
• The war, fought largely in Europe, severely damaged the economies and political systems of most European nations.
• Europe, once the centre of global power, failed to retain its former glory after 1945.
• In its place, two non-European powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, emerged as the most powerful nations.
• Although both the US and USSR participated in the war, their post-war rise as superpowers can be explained by their differing levels of devastation.
• The US entered the war in 1942, much later than Europe, and therefore remained largely unaffected by wartime destruction.
• The US economy remained strong, enabling it to supply massive amounts of money and arms to the Allied Powers.
• The US abandoned its earlier isolationism and actively engaged in the war, supporting the Allies.
• With its industrial, economic and military strength, and as the world’s first nuclear power, the US emerged as a superpower after 1945.
• In contrast, the Soviet Union suffered heavily as Hitler attacked in 1941, causing massive loss of life and economic disruption.
• Despite this, the USSR’s huge territory ensured that destruction was limited mainly to its European parts, leaving other regions relatively unaffected.
• The vast size prevented complete paralysis of its industrial and economic infrastructure.
• Under Joseph Stalin, the USSR had already become a heavily industrialized state, especially in heavy industries, which strengthened its military capabilities.
• By 1949, the Soviet Union became the second nuclear power, further solidifying its superpower status.
• The overall weakness of Europe and the division of Germany after the war indirectly helped the Soviet Union rise as a major global force.
• Thus, the US and Soviet Union emerged as two superpowers with nuclear capabilities, surpassing earlier European great powers which possessed only conventional weapons.
• Although they had cooperated during the war, once it ended, both began to oppose each other to gain supremacy in world politics.
• Their rivalry over the next four and a half decades led to the emergence of the Cold War in international politics.

Meaning of Cold War

• The term ‘Cold War’, popularized by Walter Lippmann in 1947, came to represent a situation where relations between the East and the West, though strained, hostile and war-like, never escalated into a direct hot war.
• It signified intense political, economic and ideological competition between the two blocs, yet without actual armed confrontation.
• Calvocoressi emphasised that the Cold War was not an episode like other wars, with clear beginnings, endings, winners or losers; rather, it symbolised a state of affairs, a long-term condition of structured hostility.
• Scholars further enriched the meaning of the Cold War through interpretive frameworks that highlight its many dimensions.
• As part of this scholarly interpretation, Bernard Baruch first used the term in a speech, and Lippmann popularised it, capturing the idea of non-combative but war-like tension between the USA and USSR, where conflict remained psychological, diplomatic, strategic and ideological rather than military.
• Jawaharlal Nehru described this phenomenon as a “brain war, a nerve war and a propaganda war in operation,” underlining that the conflict was fought through pressure tactics, diplomatic rivalry, psychological warfare and propaganda, not battlefield violence.
• K.P.S. Menon viewed the Cold War as an ideological, systemic and bloc-based confrontation — Capitalism vs. Communism, Democracy vs. Dictatorship, and NATO vs. Warsaw Pact — involving not just two states but two opposing world-views, institutions and military alliances.
• Raymond Aron defined the Cold War memorably as “impossible peace, improbable war,” capturing its essence: a state where peace could never truly be achieved due to deep distrust, yet war was unlikely because of catastrophic consequences.
• While the two superpowers never engaged in direct military conflict, they frequently pushed the world to the brink of nuclear war, as seen in crises like Berlin Blockade (1948), Korean War (1950), Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) and Afghanistan (1979).
• Nuclear deterrence became the central factor preventing an actual war. This delicate balance — often called the ‘balance of terror’ — deterred both sides from launching nuclear strikes, even as it stimulated a massive arms race involving nuclear, missile, and space technologies.
• This period was characterised by alternating phases of tension and détente, where hostility sometimes softened, diplomatic channels opened briefly, and efforts were made to limit arms, only to return again to suspicion and rivalry.
• The Cold War began after World War II, driven by ideological rivalry between capitalist USA and communist USSR.
• The Yalta Conference (1945) exposed divergent post-war visions for Europe and the world.
• The division of Germany and Berlin, the Marshall Plan, and the creation of NATO and Warsaw Pact deepened the confrontation, initiating decades of tension.
• Key features of the Cold War included:
  
  • Ideological conflict between capitalism and communism.
  • Arms race, especially in nuclear weapons and ICBMs.
  • Proxy wars in regions like Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan.
  • Space race, highlighted by the US moon landing.
  • Formation of military alliances—NATO vs Warsaw Pact.
  • Extensive espionage by agencies like CIA and KGB.
  • Economic competition, including the Marshall Plan and Soviet aid to communist states.
  • High-level diplomatic tensions and summits to manage nuclear risks.
  • Use of cultural propaganda to promote ideological narratives.
  • Psychological warfare aimed at undermining the opponent’s morale.

Origin of Cold War

• The two superpowers, the US and the Soviet Union, began contradicting each other over the reconstruction of Europe after the Second World War.
• The US introduced a massive plan to revive Western Europe, beginning with President Harry S. Truman’s request for $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey.
• The primary objective of this policy, known as the Truman Doctrine, was to contain the spread of communism in Western Europe.
• The initial $400 million package gradually expanded to include other West European nations, with special focus on Italy and France due to their socialist leanings.
• While the Truman Doctrine aimed at indirectly containing Soviet influence, the Marshall Plan, launched by Secretary of State George Marshall, was a more direct strategy of economic diplomacy to bring all of Western Europe under American influence.
• The Soviet Union grew suspicious of these American initiatives, interpreting them as attempts to make Western Europe a US satellite.
• To counter this, the Soviets provided massive economic aid to Eastern Europe in order to keep it within the Soviet sphere of influence.
• Germany, divided into four occupation zones after the war, eventually split into West Germany (FRG) and East Germany (GDR) due to growing superpower influence.
• As tensions deepened, Europe became divided into the East bloc, controlled by the Soviet Union, and the West bloc, controlled by the US — a division known as the East–West Divide.
• Both superpowers exercised strong economic and political control over their respective blocs and prevented each other from gaining a foothold, leading to the origin of the Cold War.
• Beyond political rivalry, there were sharp ideological differences between the superpowers.
• The Soviet Union (USSR), created after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, adopted Marxist socialist principles in its governance and economy.
• The United States followed liberal democratic and capitalist principles, making the two ideologies fundamentally contradictory.
• As both emerged as superpowers, they suspected each other of ideological expansionism.
• The US feared the global spread of socialism, while the Soviets viewed American economic aid programmes as tools of neocolonialism.
• The Soviet Union accused the US of attempting domination through the “politics of aid” and liberal democratic ideals.
• The US, in turn, described the USSR as “social imperialist”, claiming it sought global influence through the appeal of socialism.
• Thus, ideological mistrust, propaganda, and psychological warfare also contributed to the origin of the Cold War.
• Although the Cold War never became a real war, constant tensions, crises, and war-like situations characterised relations between the US and USSR.
• Every political, economic, diplomatic, or propaganda initiative by one superpower was countered by the other, keeping both sides and their allies tense and alert.
• Despite lasting from 1945 to 1990, the Cold War did not erupt into direct conflict, though it frequently threatened to do so.
• With its onset, the traditional Balance of Power system, dominated by 5–6 major powers for 300 years, came to an end.
• Instead, international politics became bipolar, dominated by only two superpowers, and this bipolarity shaped global relations until 1990.
• Tracing the origin of the Cold War is difficult, as noted by Young and Kent, with historians debating its beginnings until 1989.
• The orthodox view blames Soviet aggression and expansionism, arguing that Stalin made cooperation impossible and threatened US–Western security, necessitating containment.
• This view aligns with realist/neo-realist thinking, emphasising power, security, and the external behaviour of capitalist vs. communist states, rather than ideology.
• Revisionist historians (1960s) challenged this, arguing that US foreign policy was driven by the needs of international capitalism and that American expansionism created Soviet insecurity.
• According to revisionists, the US shouldered more blame, and the Soviet response was mainly defensive.
• Post-revisionists highlight multiple factors—geopolitics, elite perceptions, bureaucratic politics, psychology, misunderstandings, and the pre-1917 clash of two land-based empires in Eurasia and the Western Hemisphere.
• Most scholars agree that the Cold War began due to ideological confrontation, post-WWII complications, and irreconcilable interests of the US and USSR.
• A simplified explanation identifies three major views on its origin:
  
  • View 1 (Pro-US/orthodox): Blames the Soviets for imposing communism in Eastern Europe, being aggressive in Berlin, and trying to destroy the American model.
  • View 2 (Pro-Soviet/revisionist): Blames the US for paranoia, aggression, disrespect, ignoring Soviet security concerns, and pursuing containment through policies like the Truman Doctrine.
  • View 3 (Post-revisionist/middle path): Blames both sides, citing mutual fear, suspicion, ideological incompatibility, and misinterpretation of each other’s intentions.
• Additional factors included competition for ideological supremacy, extensive propaganda, fear-driven tough responses, nuclear and conventional arms buildup, and aggressive military strategies.
• Overall, both superpowers contributed to the development and escalation of the Cold War.

Rise of Superpowers

• The rise of superpowers after World War II marked a major transformation in global politics, driven by the weakened state of Europe and the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as dominant actors.
• The post-war devastation created a global power vacuum, as traditional European powers like Britain, France, and Germany were economically shattered. The U.S. and USSR, comparatively less damaged, emerged as the only states with the capacity to lead globally.
• The United States capitalized on its strong, technologically advanced, wartime-boosted industrial economy, becoming the world’s largest economic power.
• The Soviet Union, though economically inferior to the U.S., possessed vast territory, major natural resources, and a huge population, allowing it to mobilize massive military and industrial strength.
• Both states developed enormous military capabilities: the U.S. dominated in naval and air power, while the USSR commanded the world’s largest land army.
• The introduction of nuclear weapons became central to superpower status. The U.S. was the first nuclear power, and the USSR soon matched it, ensuring both held unmatched destructive capability.
• Both superpowers exercised strong ideological influence: the U.S. promoted capitalism and democracy, shaping Western Europe and parts of Asia; the USSR pushed communism and socialism, establishing pro-Soviet regimes across Eastern Europe.
• Through strategic foreign policies, the superpowers consolidated influence: the U.S. used the Marshall Plan to rebuild and align Western Europe, while the USSR created the Warsaw Pact to counter NATO and strengthen its communist bloc.