The United States and the Post-Cold War International System

Abstract

The international system underwent momentous changes with the end of the Cold War. The bipolar nature of the Cold War international system led to tense standoffs and crises between nuclear armed superpowers, whose influence and competition extended to virtually every corner of the globe. With the demise of this system, issues that had previously been of secondary significance and suppressed by superpower pressure, such as ethnic war and the breakup of a nation as in Yugoslavia, became both important and more likely. The end of the Cold War therefore transformed the international system and began a new era in international politics.