World History And Transformation: Post-Cold War Era (Coursework Sample)

ATELA FINNEY ISRAEL- ALSQ/02031/2016.
WORLD HISTORY AND TRANSFORMATION- ALSQ 1109.
COURSE PROVIDER- COLONEL IMBIAKHA.
PRESENTATION ON:
POST COLD WAR ERA
Introduction.
The post-cold war era (meaning after cold war) is a period in world history and transformation worth concentration and intense study. Currently, we live in the post-cold war world order. Ever since 1990, that period has come under scrutiny to date. In my discussion, I will be analyzing crucial and vital matters that have underpin the international system over this period. I will also organize them into sub topics to ease our understanding over this period. I assure you, the post-cold war world order is enlightening and interesting to study.
1 The Gulf War.
In 1990, perhaps believing that the end of the Cold War had left a power vacuum in its region, Iraq occupied its neighbor Kuwait in an aggressive grab for control of Middle East oil. CITATION Gol13 \l 1033 (Goldstein, 2013) explains that western powers were alarmed—both about the example that unpunished aggression could set in a new era and about the direct threat to energy supplies for the world economy.
The United States mobilized a coalition of the world’s major countries (with almost no opposition) to counter Iraq. This is one period that the world was considered to be a unipolar (US sneezes, and the whole world catches a cold). Working through the UN, the U.S.-led coalition applied escalating sanctions against Iraq. When Iraq did not withdraw from Kuwait by the UN’s deadline, the United States and its allies easily smashed Iraq’s military and evicted its army from Kuwait in the Gulf War. The costs of the Gulf War were shared among the participants in the coalition, with Britain and France making military commitments while Japan and Germany made substantial financial contributions.
This Iraq invasion of Kuwait has also been explained by realists in a given way. Realists see Iraq’s action as a power move. They explain that Iraq was trying to maximize its power, and ‘flex its muscles’, if I may use that term. The US intervention is also explained by the realists that it was to safeguard their power and interests. US felt that its power and influence over the region was threatened, thus the need to intervene.
2 USSR Disintegration.
Did you know that USSR was once upon a time a confederation of 15 republics? Well, now you know. USSR is an abbreviation of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The 15 republics that made up the USSR include Russia, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Belarus. The final collapse of the Soviet Union followed only months after the Gulf War. The 15 republics of the Soviet Union, of which Russia was just one, had begun taking power from a weakened central government, declaring themselves sovereign states. On 8th December 1991, the president of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed Belanvenzha Accords, which declared Soviet Union dissolved and established a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). As the Soviet Union disintegrated, the world watched in amazement. Its collapse was hailed by the west as victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, an evidence of the superiority of over socialism/communism.
You must be asking yourself, why did it disintegrate? Well, it is simple. Russia and the other former republics struggled throughout the 1990s against economic and financial collapse, inflation, corruption, war, and military weakness and ethnic differences. A failed Russian military coup attempt in 1991—and the prominent role of Russian president Boris Yeltsin in opposing it—accelerated the collapse of the Soviet Union.
CITATION Gol13 \l 1033 (Goldstein, 2013) says that western relations with Russia and the other republics have been mixed since the 1990s. Because of their own economic problems, and because of a sense that Russia needed internal reform more than external aid, Western countries provided only limited aid for the region’s harsh economic transition, which had drastically reduced living standards Russia was accepted as the successor state to the Soviet Union and took its seat on the Security Council. Russia and the United States agreed to major reductions in their nuclear weapons, and carried them out in the 1990s.
3 Secessionist Wars.
Secessionist is an adjective from the verb to secede. To secede simply implies the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, normally a political entity (state). Just like revolution or emigration, secession is a way of challenging political authority. Post-cold war period has seen states, ethnic groups try to secede and form their own states. Some manage to be recognized as states, whereas others are suppressed. Secession claims not only affected Europe, but also Asia and Africa.
* Wars on Yugoslavian secession.
Just after the Gulf War in 1991, the former Yugoslavia broke apart, with several of its republics declaring independence. Ethnic Serbs, who were minorities in Croatia and Bosnia, seized territory to form a “Greater Serbia.” With help from Serbia, which controlled the Yugoslav army, they killed hundreds of thousands of non-Serb Bosnians and Croatians and expelled millions more, to create an ethnically pure state. The international community recognized the independence of Croatia and Bosnia, admitting them to the UN and passing dozens of Security Council resolutions to protect their territorial integrity and their civilian populations. CITATION Col07 \l 1033 (Gray, 2007) says that in contrast to the Gulf War, the great powers showed no willingness to bear major costs to protect Bosnia. Instead they tried to contain the conflict by assuming a neutral role as peacekeeper and intermediary. In 1995, Serbian forces overran two UN-designated “safe areas” in eastern Bosnia, expelling the women and slaughtering thousands of the men. Finally, two weeks of NATO airstrikes (the alliance’s first-ever military engagement), along with losses to Croatia on the ground, induced Serbian forces to come to terms. The treaty to end the war (authored by U.S. negotiators) formally held Bosnia together but granted Serbian forces autonomy on half of their territory, while placing about 60,000 heavily armed (mostly NATO) troops on the ground to maintain a cease-fire.
Also, the Western powers acted decisively in 1999 when Serbian forces carried out “ethnic cleansing” in the Serbian province of Kosovo, predominantly populated by ethnic Albanians. NATO launched an air war that escalated over ten weeks. NATO came under criticism from Russia and China for acting without explicit UN authorization and for interfering in Serbia’s internal affairs. (The international community and the UN considered Kosovo, unlike Bosnia, to be a part of Serbia.) however, Kosovo came to be declared independent by World Court in 2010.
* Wars on Chechnya secession.
Chechnya was a province in Russia. Russia’s brutal suppression of its secessionist province of Chechnya in 1995 and 1999 provoked Western fears of an expansionist, aggressive Russian nationalism.
* Kenya fights secession.
The Mombasa republican council was formed in 1999 to address perceived political and economic wars against the coast people. The council was dormant till 2008, when it first raised claims that Mombasa would secede and form an independent state. They were using the slogan ‘pwani si Kenya’. However, Kenya government declared it illegal. Earlier on, the Somali had attempted to join the greater Somali but through the Shifta war, Kenya was able to suppress this.
4 Terrorism.
The International system tend to have strategic peace, with United States flexing its muscles here and there. The Big Dog was hovering about the globe. Life was sweet. However, United States ain’t seen nothing yet. A new power emerged. A power that had no time for cold war. A power that warned and attacked. A power that feared nobody, a power that some scholars came to refer to as a ‘WWIII’. Who is this power? We call Him terrorism.
The United Nations High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change, set up by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan with the goal of outlining the main security and global challenges of the 21st century, defined terrorism as “any action that is intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants, when the purpose of such act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population or to compel a Government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act”. Terrorism can also be defined as political violence that targets civilians deliberately and discriminately.
The September 11 2001, that came to be known as 9/11 attack on World Trade Center in New York and a wing in the pentagon in Washington D.C revolutionized the post- war era. The attack killed thousands of Americans and citizens of about 60 other countries. The attacks mobilized support for the United States by a very broad coalition of states. President Bush declared a “war on terrorism” that lasted for years and spanned continents. This followed after other attacks were made on Nairobi, Kenya and Tanzanian American embassies.
In late 2001, U.S. and British forces and their Afghan allies ousted the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which had harbored the al Qaeda network (led by Osama bin Laden). We find in 2001, under the Obama Administration in USA, Osama Bin Laden, Osama faces his enemies and he is killed.
Terrorism continues to be a threat to-date. Just recently, we get a Manchester Terrorist attack that the Islamic State, a terrorist organization, has claimed responsibility for. Be that as it may, many ter...