Cold War Geopolitics and United Nations Structure

Superpowers: The USA and the USSR

The United States of America

Ideology: The USA is a two-party democracy where individual rights are acknowledged.

Economy: An open market system based on free trade and private property.

Military: At the end of the war, American troops demobilized.

Political sphere of influence: Democracies and capitalist countries around the world.

The Soviet Union (USSR)

Ideology: The Soviet Union was a one-party communist totalitarian state.

Economy: The Soviet economy was centrally planned and based on five-year plans.

Military: At the end of the war, the Soviet military remained mobilized.

Political sphere of influence: Eastern Europe and parts of Asia.

The United Nations and Its Main Organs

• General Assembly: It makes decisions called resolutions. These are non-binding.
• International Court of Justice: It is responsible for settling legal disputes presented by member states.
• Economic and Social Council: It makes recommendations on economic, social, and environmental issues.
• Security Council: It is responsible for maintaining international peace and security. It is made up of five permanent members and elective members.
• UN Secretariat: It is responsible for carrying out the decisions of the General Assembly and the other main organs.

Major Cold War Conflicts

1. The Greek Civil War: The first intervention resulting from the Truman Doctrine.
2. Korean War: North Korea and South Korea were separated.
3. Hungarian Uprising: Students and workers marched into the city peacefully.
4. Suez Crisis: The Egyptian president Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.
5. U-2 Spy Plane Incident: An American spy plane was shot out of the sky as it flew over the Soviet Union.
6. Berlin Wall: Faced with a large number of people moving.
7. Bay of Pigs Invasion.
8. Cuban Missile Crisis: The USA found Soviet missile sites in Cuba which were very close to the American coast.
9. Vietnam War: Vietnam was divided into two.

Phases of the Cold War

• Containment: Stalin sets up the Cominform. The members of the Eastern Bloc are forbidden from applying for Marshall Aid.
• Peaceful Coexistence: Geneva Conference.
• End of Peaceful Coexistence: The Soviets shoot down an American U-2 spy plane.
• Detente: Tensions ease between the two superpowers.
• Freeze in Relations.
• The End of the Cold War: Ends with the fall of the communist bloc.