The Aftermath of World War II: An Overview

Introduction Aftermath means the consequences of an event especially a catastrophic event. The aftermath of World War II not only diverted fields of human effort but also affected seriously in global political system. Global politics reflects both change and continuity. By change we mean the transformation of key structures and processes that has a major impact on the nature of global politics and it is unanimously agreed that World War II changed the total dimension of global politics. Since the end of World War II the world has witnessed a massive continuation of global changes. Every Great War, especially one involving great powers on both sides, brings something new to Global system. But World War II was out of the ordinary in that respect. After the World War II the changes in politics, strategic, diplomatic and military issues which drew many new and very significant dimensions in global system. Even World War I had not brought about such massive changes. One can go on endlessly describing the aftermath of World War II, but we are concerned with different dimensions of world politics in different situations as the aftermath World War II: The influence of World War IIin global politics Tactical, operational, strategic and technical changes brought in global politics by World War II which are still used today The results of changes. Background The shift in security and military strategy was brought about by the introduction of nuclear weapons after World War II. The nuclear age had begun after the United States conducted two atomic bombs Fat Man and Little Boy against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945 and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only attacks by nuclear weapons in war to date. World War II had appeared to pose an unprecedented threat to human civilization and gave impulsion to the renewal of Wilson's vision of an international organization to keep the peace. Organizing efforts were begun even while the war was on. In June, 1945, 51 nations were represented at the founding conference in San Francisco. In October, 1945 the United Nations was officially established.Unlike the League of Nations, the UN had the full support and leadership of the United States. The Soviet Union and all the most significant nations of the world were members Meanwhile, by the end of World War II two countries United States of America and (USA) and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) emerged as Superpowers. Then bipolar world system began which was converted into the Cold War. It was from the aftermath of World War II to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. More recently, the end of the cold war produced a dramatically different world: the USA emerged as the world’s only superpower. And now Russia, China and the countries of Eastern Europe are trying to balance power with power. So consequently,there are some very significantcontexts which have introduced differentdimensions in global politicswhich are from the aftermath of World War II. These can be listed as: UN Establishment Change in International Economic order BipolarWorld system and cold war Collapse of Soviet Union UN Establishment If there is anything best happened as a result of 2nd world war that is the establishment of United Nations leaving some great incapability of the League of Nations behind. So let’s have a look at the history, structure and activities of the biggest International Organization of world. History: The failure of League war a great lesson for the leaders. Thus they felt the necessity of making an organization that works for real in case of collective issues and world peace preventing another global war replacing the flawed League of Nations. The whole idea of formatting a particular organization for peace took place first by the Declaration of St. James's Palace in 1941 among representatives of 14 countries at London. In August 14, 1941 President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill issued a joint declaration destined to be known in history as the Atlantic Charter. It was an affirmation for a better future for the world and an important initiative for establishing a world organization. The term “United Nations” was first officially used on 1 January 1942, when 26 governments signed the Atlantic Charter, pledging to continue the war effort. The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council—France, China, USSR, United Kingdom and the US Structure: The UN is based on multilateralism which is an idea based on collective understanding of mutual interest. Due to its dynamic functions, there are four structural specialty of the UN: Influential b) Inclusive c) Largest d) Diverse The UN is constituted with 6 organs: The General Assembly: The meeting together of the representatives of all the member nations. The Security Council: To deal with crisis as they arise, by whatever action seems appropriate and if necessary, by calling on members to take economic or military action against aggressor .It have five permanent members with Veto power and ten non-permanent members chosen randomly. The Secretariat: Headed by the Secretary General and over 50,000 employees it looks after the administrative work. The International Court of Justice: Deals with international disputes. The Trustee Council: The replacement of the League of Nations Mandates Commission. It has helped to gain independence of territories. The Economic and Social Council: Helps members to achieve prosperity in these two sectors by four regional organizations: Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) Besides those, there is a huge number of Programs, Funds, Institutes, Entities, Specialized Agencies, Organizations, Conventions like: Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), UN Development Program (UNDP) etc. Activity: UN action during The Korean war (1950-3),Suez crisis(1956),The Lebanon crisis (1978), The Iraq-Iran war(1980-8) Cambodia crisis (1975),Mozambique civil war (1990s) are some of those success stories. But the peacekeeping activity of the UN is the most appreciated above all.It could never be denied that after the 2nd world war, the UN has pulled up the world from many crises which could lead to even worse outcome by re-building many war affected countries by collective action. Change in International Economic Order: The establishment of major IGOs during 2nd world war period and their activities after the war brought change in international economics and commerce. The economy of Europe was in great decline and the USA appeared as a savior to that. Based in the USA, 6 major financial institutions were established for various economic activities which brought a big change in economic order and a sense of collective economical security growled globally for a gradual self-dependency. The World Bank group functions in countries for capital program to reduce poverty created in Breton Woods Conference at 1944 constituted with five institutions:  International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)  International Development Association (IDA)  International Finance Corporation (IFC)  Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)  International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) Another IGO, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was conceived in same year and same place in the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference in order to oversee the global financial system by following the macroeconomic policies of its member countries, in particular those with an impact on exchange rate and the balance of payments. Like this a collective economical understanding grew among nations instead of rivalry focusing on dynamic issues like environment, food, public health, investment in infrastructural development etc. furthermore, the economy of war affected countries began to recover rapidly by systematic plans (e.g. Monnet Plan) and gradually increasing the economical deference with 3rd world countries known as North-South gap. And, thus later, during the 70s a comprehensive package of multilateral policy named The New International Economic Order (NIEO) was proposed by developing countries through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development for reducing the North-South gap. And, that’s a big change that came up after this particular war. Bipolar World System and Cold War (1946-1989) Polarity in international relations is any of the various ways in which power is distributed within the international system. It describes the nature of the international system at any given period of time. One generally distinguishes four types of systems: Unipolarity, Bipolarity, Tripolarity, and Multipolarity, for four or more centers of power. The type of system is completely dependent on the distribution of power and influence of states in a region or internationally. Bipolarity is a distribution of power in which two states have the majority of economic, military, and cultural influence internationally or regionally. Often, spheres of influence would develop. For example, after the World War II, most Western and democratic states would fall under the influence of the USA, while most Communist states would fall under the influence of the USSR. After this, the two powers will normally maneuver for the support of the unclaimed areas. By the end of the World War II Europe’s domination of the rest of the world ended. The four western European states which had played a leading role in world affairs for most of the first half of the twentieth century were now much weaker than before. Germany was devastated and divided; France and Italy were on the verge of bankruptcy. That’s why the War encouraged the movement towards decolonization. The defeat inflicted on Britain, Holland and France by Japan, and Japanese occupation of their territories – Malaya, Singapore and Myanmar (British), French Indo-China and the Dutch East Indies- destroyed the tradition of European Superiority and invincibility. Gradually they achieved independence. Then the USA and USSR emerged as the two most powerful nations in the world, and they are no longer as isolated as they had been before the war. The Soviet Union and the United States represented two very conflicting ideologies.The USA was a capitalist democracy; the USSR was a communist dictatorship. Both sides believed that they held the key to the future happiness of the human race.Furthermore, in USA, the individuals had the rights and rights were more important than needs of the community while in Russia, the community was more important than the individual. USA’s wealth was created by private enterprise and trade through a market economywhile Russia’s wealth was owned collectively and by everyone in the society.Therefore, it is agreeable to a certain extent that the Cold War was due to the ideological differences between the USA and the USSR. This is because contributing factors like feelings of mistrust with increased the suspicion between each other intensified the gap between these two super powers further and the breakdown of wartime alliance led to these two powers competing with each other in the end instead of continuing to cooperate with each other. Nevertheless, the Cold War happened because these two different set of ideology could not exist in the presence of the other. The post-world War period had brought one of great opportunity to the USSR for the extension of Communist power under control from Moscow. After the collapse of Germany in 1945 the Red-Army under the command of Stalinthe USSR demonstrated aggressive intension to occupy Berlin. At the end of World War II, the Allied powers divided conquered Germany into four zones, each occupied by the United States, Great Britain, France, or the Soviet Union .The same was done with Germany's capital city, Berlin. In 1949 this same division into West and East occurred in Berlin. Since the city of Berlin had been situated entirely within the Soviet zone of occupation, West Berlin became an island of democracy within Communist East Germany.Within a short period of time after the war, living conditions in West Germany and East Germany became distinctly different. By the late 1950s, many people living in East Germany wanted out. No longer able to stand the repressive living conditions of East Germany, they would pack up their bags and head to West Berlin. East Germany was rapidly losing both its labor force and its population.Having already lost 2.5 million people by 1961, East Germany desperately needed to stop this mass exodus. Then the USSR constructed Berlin Wall in 1961 which was the physical division between West Berlin and East Germany. However, it was also the symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War. The USA believed in cooperation among the big powers, still it tried to establish their bases in many countries of theother side Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. On the other hand,by the end of the World War II the USSR wanted to fill-up the power vacuum as the European domination ended. But the USA was determined to prevent USSR domination around the world. When the USA bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 these bombs had been dropped by planes but it soon became clear that the American monopoly on nuclear weaponry in the early postwar years reinforced the traditional sense of invulnerability to external aggression that had long nourished the national tendency for isolationism. The United States had intervened in the World War II on the assumption that the conquering of Europe and the control of its resources and Atlantic bases by a single aggressive power would perforce pose an unacceptable threat to the security of the Western Hemisphere.After World War II the United States and the Soviet Union began a nuclear arms race that continued unabated throughout the 1960s. The term arms race, in its original usage, describes a competition between two or more parties for the best armed forces. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation. For most of the 1950s both countries (USA & USSR) concentrated on manufacturing atomic and hydrogen bombs and the intercontinental bomber force necessary to deliver them. Both countries also developed short-range and intermediate-range missiles that could be armed with nuclear warheads, as well as nuclear weapons to be used on the battlefield. Two super powers were very much rivalry with each other in their ideology and self-interest. Thus they became very aggressive in their approach.These differences were intensified as a result of their mutual suspicions immediately after the Second World War which turns into Cold War. The conflict between the Communist nations led by the Soviet Union and the democratic nations led by the United States is known as Cold War. It is fought by all means - propaganda, economic war, diplomatic haggling and occasional military clashes. It is fought in all places - in neutral states, in newly independent nations in Africa, Asia and even in outer space.The historians have so far not reached any agreement on the time in which the Cold War began. It is, however, quite safe to say that since 1947 when President Truman of the United States declared an anti-communist policy, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union has begun. It is to say that the aftermath of World War II is the Cold War. If we want to use a single word for explaining the status of the Cold War that war would have to be stalemate. The political problem of bipolar world order was not the cold war, but the revolution of military technology in a nuclear age the traditional practice of international politics were sub-ordinate to and governed by the nuclear weapons. In the nuclear world neither side can go to large-scale war but both sides must affirm that they will go to war if needed. Since neither side could destroy the other from without except of the cost of own destruction both side (USA & USSR) avoided direct confrontation and they opted for Proxy War for retaliating each other. A "proxy war" is a conflict instigated or supported by countries or entities that aren't directly involved in the fighting. A proxy war is a way for a country to pursue its geopolitical aims on the battlefield without going to war itself. Korean War (1950-1953), Vietnam War (1962-1975), Afghan War (1979-1988) were the examples of Proxy War. The causalities of Korean War were extremely high and legacy of Cold War at rivalry resulted in the permanent instability in the Korean Peninsula. Over half a century since the Korean War the peninsula remains divided between the communist North and the capitalist South. Still at present there lies a frozen conflict Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. The United States armed forces were at their highest state of readiness ever and Soviet field commanders in Cuba were prepared to use battlefield nuclear weapons to defend the island if it was invaded. Luckily, thanks to the bravery of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, war was averted..Fidel Castro took power of Cuba after the Cuban Revolution in 1959. The United States did not like how he was governing things and decided to back a rebellion against Castro. This rebellion was called the Bay of Pigs invasion and it was stopped by the Cuban Government. After this invasion Cuba was scared of another invasion so they became a "Socialistic Republic". They did this to become friendly with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union saw Cuba as a great opportunity. The United States has the capability to attack Russia with nuclear weapons because they had missile sites in Turkey and better weapons; however, the Soviet Union could not reach the United States with any of its nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union wanted to put nuclear weapons in Cuba so they could now fire on the United States if the US ever attacked them.In 1962, the Soviet Union was desperately behind the United States in the arms race. Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe but U.S. missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. In late April 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles in Cuba. A deployment in Cuba would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a real deterrent to a potential U.S. attack against the Soviet Union .Meanwhile, Fidel Castro was looking for a way to defend his island nation from an attack by the U.S. Ever since the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961; Castro felt a second attack was inevitable. Consequently, he approved of Khrushchev's plan to place missiles on the island. In the summer of 1962 the Soviet Union worked quickly and secretly to build its missile installations in Cuba. Through reconnaissance flights done by U-2 recon planes, The US found the Cubans with Soviet help setting up all the stuff they got. This was backed by the thousands of reports that were flooding into Miami. Below is a map of the missile sites they found: On October 16, 1962 President John F. Kennedy learned about the pictures taken the day before. He immediately formed EX-COMM. EX-COMM was a group of President Kennedy and his 12 most trusted advisors including his brother Robert Kennedy. EX-COMM decided they would impose a naval quarantine around Cuba. Kennedy wanted to prevent Cuba from getting any more weapons. Kennedy used the word quarantine because saying blockade is considered an act of war by the Geneva Conference. The Quarantine stopped the Soviet Union from shipping more weapons. Thus the world had got a narrow escape from a nuclear war. In easy term,to understand it as a whole,the Chicken Model matrix of this situation is given below: Soviet Union (USSR) United States (U.S.) Blockade (B) Air Strike (A) Withdrawal (W) Maintenance (M) Compromise (3, 3) Soviet victory, U.S. defeat (2, 4) U.S. victory, Soviet defeat (4,2) Nuclear war (1,1) Figure 1: Cuban missile crisis as Chicken Key: (x, y) = (payoff to U.S., payoff to USSR) 4=best; 3=next best; 2=next worst; 1=worst According to that,by the blockade of the U.S. and Withdrawl of USSR,lead to next best outcome of compromise preventing the wost outcome : a nuclear war . Détente Détente was a permanent relaxation in international affairs during the Cold War rather than just a temporary relaxation (the so-called "thaw"). Detente is a term usually associated with the relations between America, Russia and China. The 1970’s witnessed détente. USSR and USA:after Cuban Missile Crisis 1963 - hot-line established 1963 - Both agreed to only use underground tests for nuclear explosions 1969 - Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) start 1972 - Richard Nixon, USA president, visited Moscow 1973 - Leonid Brezhnev, USSR leader, visited Washington 1974 - Nixon visited Moscow 1975 - Helsinki Agreement — USA, USSR, Canada + major European powers accept European frontiers set up after World War Two. This recognized that Germany was divided and East European countries agreed to allow their people human rights such as freedom of speech. Afghanistan War and Collapse of Soviet Union Afghan War was the turning point of cold war. Afghanistan hit the world's headlines in 1979. Afghanistan seemed to perfectly summarize the Cold War. The Soviet invasion was a disaster for the people of Afghanistan. There were eight years of bitter war.The Russians invaded to ensure that Afghanistan remained friendly to them. Their motives were exactly the same as those of British imperialism and the US today – to protect their imperialist interests. Opium production in Afghanistan took off in 1979 as the whole economy collapsed. The US supported elements of the Afghan resistance in the 1980s to destabilize Russia as part of the Cold War. The superpowers kept the war going until 1989, when Russian troops were finally forced to leave. The US government had poured billions of dollars of military aid in the 1980s and then cut it off in the 1990s after the defeat and collapse of Russia. It wanted nothing more to do with a country that was no longer any use after the end of the Cold War. One man is credited with ending the cold war, Mikhail Gorbachev. This however was not the biggest event Gorbachev was responsible for. The end of the cold war was just a by-product of the other major event he was involved with. That is the fall of communism in the USSR and the collapse of the USSR itself.From the outside it seemed as if this great superpower self-destructed in only three months. The USSR's demise is of course more complicated than this. The breakup of the USSR can be traced back to Gorbachevs appointment and his early reforms. Gorbachev introduced a wide ranging program of reform. His major reforms were glasnost, perestroika and democratization (1985). These reforms allowed the problems of the USSR to be uncovered and become public knowledge. And in 1991 finally Soviet Union collapsed . Emerge of a New World System Then the USA became world’s only superpower. Continuing after cold war, the U.S. then continued to intervene in international affairs as the sole remaining super hegemonic power of world. That took the whole global politics from Bipolarity to a unipolar world system what the world had never seen before.Apart from the balance of power thought, all the global power, politics, business, ideology, technology was centralized to the U.S. and the concept of Capitalism rose on the edge of its limit in global economic influence.No other conflict of interest dominated the post-World II world like the cold war did. Conclusion That’s why the aftermath of World War II is still affecting the global politics in today’s world. So we can say that it is the effects of the aftermath of World War II which made the USA a hegemonic power.Now the question is that, would it be a unipolar system or it would be another Bipolar or Multipolar system?