How Did The End Of The Cold War Affect The Concept Of Security?

How did the end of the Cold War affect the concept of security?

Introduction to International Relations

INR 203

Major Essay

The concept of security is a very large concept, which can be broken down into a group of smaller ideas. The end of the Cold War did affect the sub categories of the concept of security in positive and negative ways. The end of the Cold War helped to bring about more cooperation in the international system, after a period of tension in a bipolar world. This could have made the nation states involved in the Cold War more “secure” in terms of development in the long term. However, the break up of the Soviet Union could have also increased threats to national security due
The breakup of the USSR caused regional tensions between some of the former Soviet states. This led to political extremism ethnic nationalism, terrorism and regional tensions. This provides the motives for states to secure nuclear weapons that formally belonged to the Soviet Union. This is mainly of concern to the United States because it would be the target of terrorist groups trying to attack it.3 This affects the concept of military security, political security and personal security. Many states would be prone to attacks by rogue groups or states, with will “decrease” their military security, unless Russia tries to secure all its nuclear weapons. If rouge terrorist groups obtain weapons of mass destruction, it will also affect the concept of personal security. This is because the terrorist groups will attack areas whilst people try to get on with their everyday lives, and there will always be a threat to a person because they can not predict the possible moves of terrorist groups, in turn decreasing their personal security. The end of the Cold War could have also brought regional tensions because the newly formed states could argue over land, or have weapons left in their newly formed borders. This will increase the insecurity of that states neighbours because a certain state has more military capabilities than any other state in their
The core concepts of security such as military capabilities and economic growth have been affected in a positive way, because of the increase cooperation between many former Soviet countries, which has led to better development and integration. However, there have also been regional tensions combined with increased threat from terrorism and genocide. Therefore the different sectors of the concept of security have been affected in different ways.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

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