IRS 204PROJECT QUESTION With relevant examples of the New States, critically examine the impacts of the cold war to the New States. NAMES OF GROUP MEMBER AfinjuomoOluwatolaniHIS/2014/019 GiwaOpeoluwaTobiHIS/2014/051 MakindeJoshua OHIS/2014/064 AdenijiAbionaMHIS/2014/009 AdelakunGbengaJHIS/2014/007 OtumolaFunmilolaJHIS/2014/103 IdowuChristianaAtinukeIRS/2014/043 ObeyaAnthonyAgboIRS/2014/051 OladosuOluwatoyinEIRS/2014/059 OnipedeOmorinsolaA.
IRS/2014/067 AbdulazeezIbrahimOpeyemiIRS/2014/001 UwagaFavourCIRS/2014/083 The aim of this write up is to have opened the eye of its reader to the effects of Cold War on the New States and how the new states survived during this polarized era that was characterized by the two economic ideologies and arms race. There is need to understand some terms like “Cold War” and “New State” to enhance the proper understanding of the effect of Cold War on the New States. COLD WAR The Cold War was a time of competition, and nations were expected to play a certain role in that struggle. Cold War is the term or is the name given to the relationship that developed primarily between the United Nations and USSR after the World War II. It was a state of tension after World War II between powers of Eastern bloc which was the defunct Soviet Union and its satellite State and Western bloc that is United States and its NATO allies.
Although there was disagreement amongst historians regarding the starting point of the Cold War, it was basically between 1947 and 1991. The war was as a result of the growth of the Soviet Union and its hate towards the United States, as to it not participating in the Second World War or its late entry. The United States on the other hand made it a point of duty to curb the excesses of the Soviet Union and to supportevery other State which was against the Soviet Union. The Cold war wasn’t “Idealic” in the sense as it presumed to be because it actually existed. Even though there was no outright exchange of physical ammunition between both blocs, there were proxy wars around the globe in the bid for their struggle for dominance amongst the new states. The war was basically rivalry and competition between both blocs, both blocs developed themselves till they got to the point of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction).
Both blocs were capable of destroying each other, just the United States alone conducted around 1,054 nuclear tests which was according to the official counting during the Cold War,i. ebetween 1945 and 1991. The Cold War and its events have left to a large extent asignificant legacyespecially in the New States. NEW STATE The concept of the New states would be explained through two contending theoretical justification which include the new states in terms of age and the new state in terms of development. Ever since the treatyWestphalia in 1648, the primary understanding of state is that it is a political institution of sufficient organized authority and power to govern a defined territory and its population and to remain independent of other states.
With the state understood from this view perspective, new states are those ones that recently acquired independent political control over their own affairs and these include the majority of the countries in Asia and Africa as well as Latin America, Europe and Oceania which, before 1945, were under some form of colonial rule. The yardstick used in measuring new states under this analysis is strictly age. i. ethose states that were formed in the world politics after 1945 notwithstanding their level of development.
A state in the sense of modern statesystemcannot be so called without sovereignty, and sovereignty cannot beexercisedwhile an entity is under some forms of colonial rule. This is why the understanding of the formation of new states assumed the period of independence rather thanthe actual date of formation. For example, Nigeria became a modern state in 1960 instead of 1914 when the southern and Northern Protectorates were amalgamated. Israel (1948) and China (1949) are examples of new states among others. On the other hand, any state that came into formation before 1945 is referred to as Old State.
According tomingst(1999), “The structure of the international system reflects stratification as well as polarity”. Stratification in this case refers to the uneven access to resources by different groupsof states and itis a key to understanding the notion of the international system where new states mostly played the role of thefiddle. The determining factors in this stratificationincludes military strength, economic power, stable political leadership, mineral deposit, geographical location among others, while these indicators are found in large quantity and quality in many old states,they are found wanting (except the mineral deposits) in many new states of the world. New states in terms of development include all those states that are economically backward, where unemployment, poverty, hunger, political instability, violence and many other social vicesthrive.
Having understood state in this axiom, china and Israel cannot be categorized as new states because of their technologicaladvancement through young in formation. On the other hand, Liberia, Haiti, Chile and many others are all new states, age notwithstanding new states, are not only those that are new in terms of age subject to when they secured political independence and self rule, but also those whose developmental strides are still in the rudimentary level. In fact, the understanding of new states in the international system is synonymous with their level of development because that is what determines the capacity of states to assert themselves in the global politics. Accordingly, one can therefore argue that old states are those ones that can exert greater influence in the international system and whose borders are not as porous as what obtains in many developing states because the less developed countries are largely considered to constitute the new states as well and the new states are those states that lack the requisite technology tochallenge the old states at the era of globalization. THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF COLD WARON NEW STATE The effect of Cold war on Africans has been shaped by complex regional dynamics, through which local disputes and national conflicts have spilled over national borders. Each country in the region has a complex internal situation and violent recent history, where local antagonisms have become polarized and entangled with those neighboring countries.
The struggle for the power in Kinshasa after the dismantling of the Congolese state, within weeks following independence Congo fell into a constitutional crisis, the country became a pawn on the chess board of the Cold War, the state was taken care of with such a degree of bad governance that we had to invent the wordweptocracyfor it; state institutions andpublic mandates were card to a large extent still are considered as toolsfor personal enrichment. The result is a crisis of legitimacy, a ruined state that needs to be rehabilitated from nearly zero and the total absence of the normal instruments of a state to impose the rule of law. The rehabilitation of Congolese state is a condition for sustainable peace in central Africa. More so the Rwandese war and genocide has been exported to Congo after the fight of the two million Rwandese Hutu. Rwanda’s involvement in Mobutu fall, the war of 1998-2002.
The permanent presence on Congolese soil of Rwandese armed opposition who until today isresponsible for much of the suffering of the population of Eastern Congo and remains a threat for Rwanda. The maintained presence of Rwanda supported armed groups lead by Congolese Tuts. The Cold war has affected the International Relations in different ways firstly the Cold War divided the world in to three distinct camps, the NATO camp, the Warsaw camp and the nonaligned the first two camps were armed with nuclear weapons the rivalry between the two super powers quickly spread to the rest of the world. The USA encouraged other friendly regions in the world to form their own alliancethus;the Cold War became global and directly affected international stability (Murphy 2003).
In addition both superpowers resorted to confrontation and propaganda and this in turn was played out in the rest of the world. Furthermore, super power rivalry was played out in parts of the world for example in sub Saharan Africa particularly Angola which became a battle ground for the super powers. On the other hand the USSR and Cuba were supporting and arming Angola government while on the other hand USA and South Africa supported the UNTA rebels. In many other cases the super powers support economically and militarily to various government and rebels in Africa exacerbated the Civil war what engulfed thecontinent (wayneet al, 2005). More so, the super power rivalry played out in the third world, millions of people died as a result of the Cold War because of the Civil War and other conflict that affected many parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia. Indeed as painter (2001) pointed out most of the millions who perished during the Cold War died in the third World countries thus, the Cold War had a devastating effect on the demography of the New state that form the bulk of the third World countries.
The Cold War which saw the division of the World into two majorblocswhich was characterized by arms race these blocs were armed with weapons of mass destruction which was capable of causinghavoc thiscausedtension in the New States. Although the cold war caused and exacerbated conflict in some parts of the world it also maintained order through balance of power. Several significant radiation-related accidents occurred at military and civilian nuclear reactors and facilities, causing direct facilities, as well as involuntary occupational and public exposures because numerous diagnostic and epidemiological studies have since been conducted, the medical effects of radiation exposure are now better understood than they were during the Cold War comparatively large and involuntary doses and effect from radiation, chemical and biological agents have been documented. Some exposures were from deliberate human medical experimentsand some from residues of highly toxic materials at contaminated sites. Whilethe nuclear facilities and residual products of the Cold War are mostly contained within secure boundaries that is not necessarily the case for nuclear propelled sub-marines that have been sunk at sea. The legacy of the Cold Warconflicthowever is not always easily erased, as many of the economic and social tensions that were exploited to fuel Cold War competition in partsof the Third World remain acute.
The breakdown of state control in a number of areas formerly ruled by communist governments has produced new civil and ethnic conflicts, particularly in the former Yugoslavia. Militarypolicies and strategies are slowly being modified to reflect the increasing interval without major confrontation because of large extent inventories of weapons, fissile materials, and rapid response delivery systems, a mutual danger coexists for accidental, misjudged, or miscalculated incidents or warfare. During the Cold War strong impressions were made and continue to affect national psyche as a result of close brushes with all out nuclear warfare. In some cases this had resulted in aversion to warfareor other cases to callousness regarding nuclear threats.
Peaceful applications of nuclear energy received a stigma still difficult to exercise. The Cold War had many effects on societies, both today and in the time past. In Russia, Military spending was cut dramatically and quickly. The effects of this were very large, seeing as the military industrial sector had previously employed one of every five Soviet adults and it’s dismantling left hundreds of millions throughout the former Soviet Union unemployed. POSITIVE EFFECTS OF COLD WAR ON THE NEW STATES. As much as the Cold War had negative effect on the New States it had some positive effects on the new states.
The Cold War considerably affected the new states especially those in Africa and Asia as it to a large extent made the integration of the former colonial territories and the independence of these territories a reality. The emergence of the bi polar powers made the grip of the former world power on their territories weak, they no longer had the economic and military power to sustain and retain those colonies. Without the assistance of USSR, Egypt would not have been able to survive as a state and consolidate its independence in the war againstIsrael, Britainand France in 1956-1957. In 1956,the intervention of the Soviet Union stopped the war betweenEgypt and Israel. Russian saved the Arabs from defeat in two wars in 1967-1974. Angola won its independence in 1975 only because of the USSR; Also the international Non-Proliferation regime inherited from the Cold War still provides disincentives and safeguards against national or sub-regional access to nuclear materials andfacilities.
Formal and informal measures and processes have effectively showed national incentives and the tempo of international nuclear weapons proliferation. Furthermore many nuclear legacies can be identified from the Cold War such as the availability of new technologies for nuclear power and energy and alsothe use of radiation for improving medical treatment and health. Also the development of micro-chips. Numerous and beneficial uses of nuclear energy have evolved such as the use of nuclear energy to create electricity. Commercial nuclear reactor operation and construction have persisted with some notable increase in worldwide energy production.
With the effect the Cold War has on the new states it became hard for the New States. As you may imagine, this was a tough world for new states to enter. They found themselves immediately forced into either the Eastern or Western Blocs, heavily controlled by more economically powerful foreign nations. Rather than exist as the pawns for the international competition between global superpowers, many of these nations started coming together for mutual strength. They first came together at the Asia-African Conference, also called the Bandung Conference, held in Bandung, Indonesia in 1955. The 29 nations to participate, most of them former colonies, started discussing an idea: that they had the right to remain neutral in this Cold War.
From the Banding Conference, leaders of these nations formally began organizing the Non-Aligned Movement. While many people put substantial effort into this, the main leaders were Jawaharlal Nehru (India), Sukarno (Indonesia), Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt), KwameNkrumah (Ghana) and Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia). In 1961, these leaders and others formally defined the goals of the Non-Aligned Movement as unifying nations under the right to remain politically neutral and to govern themselves without foreign intervention. The first Non-Aligned Movement Summit Conference was held in Cairo of that year. Nations invited to attend had to meet several criteria, including a devotion to neutrality and a willingness to interact with other neutral nations regardless of their ideology.
The nations also must not be part of any military alliance with what they called the ‘Great Powers’, basically meaning the USA, USSR, or any European empire. The Summit defined the Non-Aligned Movement, and their first formal conference was held later that same year in Serbia, largely organized by the Yugoslavian President Tito. In conclusion cold war had anadverseeffect on new state most especially the Africans and Asia countries it brought about the birth of most of the countries that formed the bulk of the new states. Most of the newstate receivedhelp from at least one of the blocs at one point during the cause of the fight for independence or during the consolidation of their independence countries like Angola underAgortinhoNeto, Mozambique underSamoraMachel, Guinea Bissau underAmilcarCabral, Congo undermajorNgoubiEgypt under Abdel Nasser in 1954-69, Somalia under SaidBarretuiedin 1969 Uganda briefly under MiltonOboteinand many more had received aid from one of these blocs.
Up till date the impact of these war cannot be totally ruled out in these countries. REFERENCE: AleearderDevolpi,nuclear insights; The Cold War legacy. Volume 2: Nuclear threats and prospects (A Knowledgeable Assessment) 2009. Onuoha, Jonah (2008). Beyond Diplomacy.
Contemporary issues on International Relations. Koernan, Victor G(1995) imperialism and its contradiction Great BritainRoutleoge,inc. StrategicSautyAnalyisbyZanchetta, LondonRoweledge(2012) Painter, David the Cold War an international History. New York;Rouledge, 1999. New States in world Politics: prospects and challenges.
Slater, David (2004). Geopolitics and Post-Colonial: RethinkingNorth-South Relations. USA Black well publisher
