IRM Bulliet Cold War And Decolonization
Chapter 32: The Cold War and Decolonization, 1945–1975
1
CHAPTER 32
The Cold War and Decolonization, 1945–1975
INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter students should be able to:
1.
Understand the causes of the Cold War and its political and environmental consequences for
Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the two superpowers.
2.
Understand the process of decolonization and illustrate the variations in that process by reference to concrete examples.
3.
Understand the challenges of nation building and compare the problems and the nationbuilding strategies of particular developing countries.
4.
Describe and analyze the reasons for the various ways in which the Third World states, China,
Japan, and the Middle East were both affected by and took advantage of the Cold War.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I.
The Cold War
A. The United Nations
1. After World War II, western leaders perceived the Soviet Union as the center of a world revolutionary movement, while Soviet leaders felt themselves surrounded by the western countries and their North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, founded in 1949). The United Nations provided a venue for facetoface debate between the two sides in the Cold War.
2. The United Nations was established in 1945 with a General Assembly, Security
Council, a fulltime bureaucracy headed by the SecretaryGeneral, and various specialized agencies. All signatories of the United Nations Charter renounced war and territorial conquest, but in practice, the United Nations was seldom able to forestall or quell international conflicts.
3. The decolonization of Africa and Asia greatly swelled the size of the General
Assembly, which became an arena for expressing opinions and whose resolutions carried great weight in the early years of the United Nations. The influx of new members made the General Assembly more concerned with poverty, racial discrimination, and the struggle against imperialism than with the Cold
1
CHAPTER 32
The Cold War and Decolonization, 1945–1975
INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter students should be able to:
1.
Understand the causes of the Cold War and its political and environmental consequences for
Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the two superpowers.
2.
Understand the process of decolonization and illustrate the variations in that process by reference to concrete examples.
3.
Understand the challenges of nation building and compare the problems and the nationbuilding strategies of particular developing countries.
4.
Describe and analyze the reasons for the various ways in which the Third World states, China,
Japan, and the Middle East were both affected by and took advantage of the Cold War.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I.
The Cold War
A. The United Nations
1. After World War II, western leaders perceived the Soviet Union as the center of a world revolutionary movement, while Soviet leaders felt themselves surrounded by the western countries and their North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, founded in 1949). The United Nations provided a venue for facetoface debate between the two sides in the Cold War.
2. The United Nations was established in 1945 with a General Assembly, Security
Council, a fulltime bureaucracy headed by the SecretaryGeneral, and various specialized agencies. All signatories of the United Nations Charter renounced war and territorial conquest, but in practice, the United Nations was seldom able to forestall or quell international conflicts.
3. The decolonization of Africa and Asia greatly swelled the size of the General
Assembly, which became an arena for expressing opinions and whose resolutions carried great weight in the early years of the United Nations. The influx of new members made the General Assembly more concerned with poverty, racial discrimination, and the struggle against imperialism than with the Cold