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Introduction: Into the Post-Cold War Era
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18400 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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9 / 1990 |
710 Words |
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The crumbling of the Berlin Wall signaled the ending of the Cold War. Formerly divided into two hostile camps, a merging world now stands on the threshold of the post-Cold War period. But where will we go? Will we move from a period of bipolar ideological conflict into an era of cooperation or return to our old antagonisms?
A look at previous postwar periods is revealing. The League of Nations was not established solely to prevent future war; member states were committed to economic and humanitarian works. Following World War II, nations again worked together to reconstruct the international community. But the Cold War left deep wounds and divided families, nations, and the world into two blocs. Despite's the League's failure and the UN's inadequacies, the Cold War's conclusion suggests that the international community should once again address the needs of the world. The following special report, "Into the Post-Cold War Era," is by no means the last word on the approaching period. It is intended to provoke readers and stimulate thought on critical issues.
THE WORLD & I present a forward-looking global view of the post-Cold War period. The articles - written by international scholars - discuss such crucial issues as forecasting the politics and ideology of the new era, maintaining an international economy, preserving the environment, and harmonizing cultures in this new epoch.
Readers may well ask if we truly have witnessed the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a new period in international relations. In "Beyond the Cold War,'' Lee Edwards, professor of politics at Catholic University, writes, "Continents that were once locked in protracted conflict are now joined in cooperative ventures. Nations that were hopelessly divided are now uniting.'' Edwards concludes that after 40 years of hostility and suspicion, the Cold War has indeed ended.
But does this equate with peace in our time? Some economists believe that permanent peace will be found only through the elimination of all trade barriers. More than 100 years ago, English economist Richard Cobden wrote that free trade means "breaking down the barriers that separate nations." Yet while socialism attempts to refashion its centrally planned economies, the free-trading nations of the world have abandoned the agreements made at Bretton Woods at the end of World War II. On today's economic front, "The world's leading powers appear to have worked themselves into a stalemate not unlike the stalemate that nuclear weapons have produced on the military front," writes Harvard University professor Ray Vernon. Withholding commercial technology and foreign aid could potentially harm the struggling developing economies of the world.
From the dawn of the post-Cold War period, governments appear to have been reawakened to the needs of preserving resources of caring for the environment for those who follow. With the knowledge that forests, water, oil and air are finite resources come unprecedented international agreements to limit use and abuse of nature. Author Andrei Kosyrev, director of the Soviet Union's Office of International Organizations, suggests that the conflict between man and the environment can be resolved by "introducing cardinal changes into industrial and technological policies and by promoting positive changes at the level of human consciousness." Kosyrev deduces that it has taken the international community a long while to comprehend what many "great
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