An Iron Curtain, and a Global Stage
Cooperation attempted, division produced
- Despite efforts to maintain international cooperation through the newly created United Nations, deep-seated tensions between the USSR and the West led to the division of Europe, which was referred to in the West as the Iron Curtain.
- Despite marks a real attempt that failed, and deep-seated says the tensions were older than the peace.
- Note the careful phrasing: referred to in the West as — the CED attributes the term rather than adopting it.
'Despite efforts... through the newly created United Nations' indicates...
And 'deep-seated' says the tensions were older than the peace.
Four kinds of Cold War activity
- The Cold War played out on a global stage and involved propaganda campaigns; covert actions; limited "hot wars" in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean; and an arms race, with the threat of a nuclear war.
- Four methods, and the third is why the term cold needs its quotation marks around hot wars.
- A global stage means a European conflict fought largely elsewhere — the reverse of 8.2's spread outward from Europe.
Select all four kinds of Cold War activity the CED names.
A global stage: a European conflict fought largely elsewhere.
The arms race and the threat
- 8.8 already recorded that military technologies made possible nuclear proliferation, and the risk of global nuclear war.
- Here that risk becomes a permanent condition of European politics rather than an outcome of a war.
- So the Cold War is the first period in this course organised around a war that did not happen.
A cause, a method, or an effect?
Sort each element of the Cold War.
The CED says the division was...
It attributes the term rather than adopting it.
The CED attributes the term rather than adopting it. The division of Europe was referred to in the West as the Iron Curtain — that careful phrasing tells you who used the phrase, and it is worth reproducing rather than flattening.
The Cold War is the first period in this course organised around a war that did not happen.
8.8's nuclear risk becomes a permanent condition of politics.
Why the tensions were deep-seated
- 8.7 named deep distrust between Western democratic, capitalist nations and the authoritarian, communist Soviet Union before the war.
- 8.1's thread explains it: they held conflicting conceptions of the relationship between the individual and the state.
- So the division of Europe is the ideological battle taking a geographical form.
The division of Europe is the ideological battle taking a ____ form.
8.1's conflicting conceptions of the individual and the state.
Causes, events, effects
- The objective names all three, so an answer should be structured in those three parts.
- Causes: deep-seated tensions and conflicting conceptions of the state, despite the UN.
- Events: propaganda, covert action, limited hot wars, an arms race. Effects: 9.4's two blocs.
Two powers that will not fight each other directly still need somewhere to compete. They find it in other continents, in broadcasts, in intelligence services, and in the size of an arsenal neither intends to use. All four are the same contest.
Despite efforts to maintain international cooperation through the newly created United Nations, deep-seated tensions between the USSR and the West led to the division of Europe, which was referred to in the West as the Iron Curtain. The Cold War played out on a global stage and involved propaganda campaigns; covert actions; limited "hot wars" in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean; and an arms race, with the threat of a nuclear war.