The Cold War
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| superpowers/ˈsuːpəpaʊəz/ | States with exceptional global military, political and economic influence. |
| Cold War/kəʊld wɔː/ | The prolonged geopolitical rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies after the Second World War. |
| Non-Aligned Movement/nɒn əˈlaɪnd ˈmuːvmənt/ | An association of states seeking an independent position outside the major rival military blocs, originating during the Cold War. |
Two superpowers 超级大国, two systems
- The global balance of economic and political power shifted during and after World War II and rapidly evolved into the Cold War 冷战.
- The democracy of the United States and the authoritarian communist Soviet Union emerged as superpowers.
- Which led to ideological conflict and a power struggle between capitalism and communism across the globe.
The CED describes the two superpowers as...
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The CED's wording is precise and worth reproducing.
A struggle that was everywhere
- The CED writes across the globe, and it means it: the conflict shaped decisions in states that had no part in its origins.
- A newly independent state choosing an economic model was choosing a patron whether it wanted one or not.
- That is why decolonisation and the Cold War cannot be told separately.
Select all the Non-Aligned Movement figures the CED names.
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The other two are World War II leaders from 7.7.
A third position
- Groups and individuals, including the Non-Aligned Movement 不结盟运动, opposed and promoted alternatives to the existing economic, political and social orders.
- The CED names Sukarno in Indonesia and Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana.
- Non-alignment is not neutrality by default — it is an active project of refusing to be a client of either superpower.
Watch a rivalry take a shape
The Cold War is a competition that never becomes a direct war, so what it built instead is the content.
Non-alignment was simply an absence of a position.
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The CED lists it among groups that opposed and promoted alternatives.
Non-alignment was an active position, not an absence of one. The CED lists the Non-Aligned Movement among groups that opposed and promoted alternatives to the existing orders — refusing both patrons required organisation, diplomacy and a development plan of its own.
An answer should say what each side was ____, not only what it opposed.
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Each side offered a development model as well as a security guarantee.
Ideological conflict has content
- The struggle was between capitalism and communism, and each side offered a model of development as well as a security guarantee.
- For a state deciding how to industrialise, that made the choice practical rather than merely doctrinal.
- So an answer should say what each side was offering, not only what each side opposed.
The CED's phrase "across the globe" means the conflict...
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Which is why decolonisation and the Cold War cannot be told separately.
Causes and effects of an ideological struggle
- Causes: a shifted balance of power leaving two states far stronger than the rest, and two incompatible models of how a society should be organised.
- Effects: alliances, proxy wars, nuclear proliferation (8.3), and pressure on every new state to choose (8.5, 8.6).
- The Non-Aligned Movement is the clearest evidence that the pressure to choose was real.
A state that has just become independent needs capital, machinery and an army. Both superpowers will supply all three, on terms. Non-alignment means trying to obtain them without accepting either set of terms — which is harder than joining a bloc, and is why it needed a movement rather than a policy.
The global balance of power shifted during and after World War II and rapidly evolved into the Cold War, with the democracy of the United States and the authoritarian communist Soviet Union as superpowers, producing ideological conflict and a power struggle between capitalism and communism across the globe. The Non-Aligned Movement opposed and promoted alternatives — Sukarno in Indonesia, Nkrumah in Ghana.
Write from Indian non-alignment
- The United States led a capitalist bloc.
- The Soviet Union led a communist bloc. India under Nehru joined neither.
What position did India take?
India would not enlist in either Cold War camp.
What was India's Cold War position under Nehru?
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Non-alignment rejected both camps.