Routledge

Chapter Resources

Chapter 20: The End of the Cold War and the ‘New World Order’, 1980–2000

Debates

Debating the end of the Cold War

Maps

States of the former Soviet Union after 1991

The former Yugoslavia

Discussion Questions

  1. What was the impact of the Third World on the decline and collapse of the Cold War order?
  2. What were the similarities and differences between the Soviet experience in Afghanistan and the American experience in Vietnam?
  3. What caused the disintegration of the Soviet bloc in Europe?
  4. Which leader bears more responsibility for the end of the Cold War: Ronald Reagan or Mikhail Gorbachev?
  5. Why did so many countries join the coalition to push Iraq out of Kuwait?
  6. Was there a ‘new world order’ in the 1990s?
  7. How different was the Russian–American relationship in contrast to the Soviet–American one?
  8. Why did NATO or the UN not intervene more forcefully in the wars of former Yugoslavia in 1992–95?
  9. Why was the Western intervention in Kosovo so swift compared with that in Bosnia?
  10. Who, in the end, benefited most from the end of the Cold War?

Weblinks

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/
The companion site to CNN's Cold War series, the first major international documentary on the subject. Links to all twenty-four episodes and their scripts, timelines, biographies, interactive maps and more. Episodes 23 and 24 are particularly relevant for understanding the end of the Cold War.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/
The National Security Archives website offers unprecedented access to recently declassified documentation on the Cold War. The end of the Cold War is no exception — especially if one wishes to have access to the documents of the first Bush administration.

http://www.gorbyfond.org/index-en.htm
A celebratory website of the man who, many claim, ended the Cold War.