Cold War
My first inclination would be to answer the first question with a clear "YES". But come to think of it, the causes of war really have not changed at all, or at least very little. Rather than changes, there has been a shift in the causes. The cause of war which has dominated the last 50 years was the cause of ideology. However, due to the recent end of the Cold War, this cause of war, has significantly declined and is almost trivial.The causes of war have shifted from mainly ideological ones to economic, ethnic and others. Although these reasons have always played a role as causes of war throughout history, they were in the last 50 years overshadowed by the cause of ideology. Now, with ideology not on top of the agenda anymore, these causes have regained their importance. After the second World War the world was dominated by two superpowers; the USA and the USSR. The Cold War was a result of this division of power and of the important policy of spheres of influence. In the post WWII-era the Americans thought that the Russians were aiming to incorporate Western Europe (the US & British sphere of influence) into their sphere of influence (Eastern Europe) by supporting the communists in these countries. Their fears w
This shift in causes does not significantly affect the effort of maintaining peace, since they always (or at least very often) played a part in resolving a conflict and maintaining peace. In fact, with the importance of ideology not being such an important cause (or not being a cause at all) anymore, the people concerned with maintaining peace have one reason less to worry about, and one difficulty less to conquer. Potential sources of conflict can be found throughout the world. I think that armed conflict might arise in some of the ex-USSR states, and, if Netanyahu keeps up with his politics (and as I mentioned as an example before), in the Middle-East, notably in and around Israel. Another area where conflict might arise is in Africa. This is not alone due to internal tensions of various kinds, but also due to the "North-South Divide". Europe can be under threat by Africa if there will be long-term economical dissatisfaction and if some charismatic leaders can unite Africa (or at least some African states) against Europe. However all these are just hypothesis and it remains to be seen whether any of them will take place in the future. Of two things however I remain sure; firstly, the importance of economic benefits in conflicts and in political decisions will increase, and secondly, that it will be impossible to have a world without war, since to me it seems that war is a part of human nature and one can see this throughout history. Wars have built and destroyed them empires, and people have lived just to go to war. So the only way how this shift in the causes of war will effect the effort of maintaining peace, is that there is one cause less to worry about. The effort of maintaining peace will always be needed, since, in my opinion, there will always be minor armed conflicts and wars (about 148 at the moment....) In order to prove my opinion that war will always exist, one would have to write another essay to explore the reasons for this assumption more thoroughly, all I can say is to look at history, and then one will find the answer..... The position of the USA as a superpower has also changed. It still is a superpower, but its influence has declined. Nowadays, several countries openly criticise America and US foreign policy. For example, if the US had put an embargo on a country ten years ago, then all other western countries would have, without saying anything, followed that directive. If the US does so now, then these countries (although some still follow the US) complain and neglect this directive. Especially some Multinational Corporations neglect these directives, since there is a lot of money to be made. An example is the recent breach of an embargo which the US had put on a Middle-Eastern Country and which was broken by a French MNC. The US condemned this breach, whereupon the French government quite frankly expressed its support for the MNC and told the US to mind its own business. When, during the 1980īs, Gorbachev was in power, he signed several arms treaties and introduced reforms into the Soviet Union.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2063
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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