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1. Presented by: Ruheen Khatoon
Class – XII ‘D’
Roll no. -
The Cold War Era

2. THE COLD WAR ERA
1. Overview
2. Cuban Missile Crisis
3. What is Cold War?
4. The Emergence of Two
Power Blocs
5. Arenas of the Cold War
6. Challenge to Bipolarity
7. New International
Economic Order
8. India and the Cold War

3. 1: OVERVIEW –
Contemporary World Politics
1. Contemporary World Politics –
parallel to us and it is helping to
shape today’s world politics.
2. Cold War Era has affected the
present world politics.
3. End of the Cold War leads to
the beginning of the
contemporary era in the world
politics.
4. Dominance of two
superpowers, the United
States of America and the
Soviet Union was central to
the Cold War
5. Emergence of Non Alligned
Movement – Challenge to the
two super powers
6. Establishment of NIEO (New
International Economic
Order) – means to attain
economic development and
political independence.
7. Consequences, Events, Effects
of Cold War.
8. Second World War – Why
When Between Whom and its
results.

4. 2: CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
1. Cold war was in high point –
as if it will be converted to
Hot war.
2. Cold war
1. No use of weapons
2. Ideologies
3. To convince one’s point of
view
4. To show one self as
supreme
3. Hot war – use of weapons
4. No extreme situation where
weapons can be used.

5. CUBA
1. A country in North America,
South side.
2. Small Island
3. Communist country
4. It was a reason of threat
from Cuba to USA as it was
a Communist country.
5. Leader Fidel Castro
6. At present – Ruler – Raul
Castro.

6. CUBAN CRISIS
1. In April 1961 USSR feared USA
will invade communist ruled
Cuba.
2. Fidel Castro was the president
of the small island nation off the
coast of the United States.
3. Cuba was an ally of the Soviet
Union and received both
diplomatic and financial aid.
4. Nikita Khrushchev was the
leader of the Soviet Union.
5. He decided to convert Cuba to
a Russian base.
6. 1962 he placed nuclear
missiles in Cuba.
7. President of US, John F
Kennedy became aware of it
and was reluctant to do
anything that might lead to full
scale nuclear war between two
countries.
8. Kennedy ordered American
warships to intercept any
Soviet ships heading to Cuba
as a way of warning to USSR.
9. This clash is referred to as the
Cuban Missile Crisis.
10. The Cuban Crisis came to the
high point which is known as
Cold war.

7. CUBAN CRISIS
1. The cold war refers to the
competition, the tensions
and a series of
confrontations between
United states and Soviet
Union.
2. Cold war was an ideologies
conflict.
3. Organizing Political,
economic and social life all
over the world.

8. 3. WHAT IS THE COLD WAR?
1. The end of the Second World
War is a landmark in
contemporary world politics.
2. Cold war is a war without
weapon.
3. Ideological differences.
4. Both the power behaved
rationally and responsibly.
5. Logic of deterrence
World
Western
Block
U.S.A
First World
Country
Eastern
Block
U.S.S.R
Second
World
Country

9. COLD WAR
1. End of the 2nd World War –
Beginning of the Cold War.
2. The World War ended when
the United States dropped
two atomic bombs on the
Japanese cities of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki in August
1945 – led Japan to
surrender.
3. Critics said that it was
unnecessary for US to drop
atom bombs as Japan was
ready to surrender.
End of 2nd
World War
ALIED FORCES
U.S.A, U.S.S.R,
BRITAIN,
FRANCE
WINNER
AXIS POWERS
GERMANY,
ITALY AND
JAPAN
DEFEATED

10. COLD WAR
1. Dropped Atom Bomb – just
to show its supremacy.
2. USA argued that they
wanted to end the war
quickly.
3. End of the Second World
War – emergence of two
super power USA and USSR
– rivaled each other.
4. Destructions of atom bomb
was too costly to bear.
MILITARY
FEATURES OF
COLD WAR
DETERRENCE
AWARENESS OF
POWER OF EACH
OTHER
FIGHTING WAR
MASSIVELY
DESTRUCTIVE
RESPONSIBILITY
RESTRAINING
FROM ANOTHER
WORLD WAR
ENSURE HUMAN
SURVIVAL

11. 4: EMERGENCE OF TWO POWER
BLOCKS
1. These two superpowers
wanted to expand their
spheres of influence in
different parts of the world.
2. World divided into two
alliance system.
3. The smaller states in the
alliances used the link to the
superpowers for their own
purposes.
TWO SUPER
POWERS
USSR
(Union of Soviet
Socialist Republic)
Communist Group
Public Sector
communism
USA
(United States of
America)
Capitalist Group
Privatization,
Capitalism

12. EMERGENCE OF TWO POWER BLOCKS
1. Smaller states got the promise
of protection, weapons and
economic aid against their local
rivals.
2. Threatened to divide the entire
world into two camps.
3. North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) April 1949
was formed.
4. 12 states association.
5. Armed attack on any one of
them in Europe or North
America would be regarded as
an attack on all of them.
6. Each of these states would be
obliged to help each other.
TWO SUPER
POWERS
USSR
(Union of Soviet
Socialist Republic)
Communist Group
Public Sector
communism
USA
(United States of
America)
Capitalist Group
Privatization,
Capitalism

13. Cold war (1945-1989)

14. EMERGENCE OF TWO POWER BLOCKS
1. Europe became the main arena of
conflict between the superpowers.
2. The superpowers used their military
power to bring countries into their
respective alliances.
3. In East and Southeast Asia and in
West Asia (Middle East), the United
States build an alliance system called
the Southeast Asian Treaty
Organization (SEATO) and the
Central Treaty Organization (CENTO).
4. The Soviet Union and communist
China responded by having close
relations with regional countries such
as North Vietnam, North Korea and
Iraq.
5. The smaller states were helpful for the
superpowers in gaining access to
1. Vital resources, such as oil and
minerals
2. Territory, from where the
superpowers could launch their
weapons and troops.
3. Locations from where they could
spy on each other and
4. Economic support, in that many
small allies together could help pay
for military expenses.
6. These are important for ideological
reasons.
7. The loyalty of allies suggested that the
superpowers were winning the war of
ideas as well that liberal democracy
and capitalism were better than
socialism and communism or vice
versa.

15. 5: ARENAS OF THE COLD WAR
1. The Cold War led to several
shooting wars but it did not let
to another world war.
2. The superpowers were poised
for direct confrontations in
Korea (1950 – 53), Berlin (1958
– 62), the Congo (the early
1960s) and in several other
places.
3. Arenas of the Cold War refers
to the areas where crisis and
war occurred or threatened to
occur between the alliance
systems but did not cross
certain limits.
3. Many lives were lost in some of
these arenas like Korea,
Vietnam and Afghanistan but it
did not lead to nuclear war and
global hostilities.
4. Non-aligned countries played a
role in reducing Cold War
conflicts.
5. Jawaharlal Nehru, leader of
NAM played the role of
mediating between two Koreas.
6. In Congo crisis, the UN
Secretary General played a key
mediatory role.

16. 5: ARENAS OF THE COLD WAR
7. The conflicts to which both
superpowers were directly
involved but not directly engaged
between one another which
escalated into a “shooting war” or
a real war between Soviet and
American Troops.
8. The Berlin Blockade of 1948, the
Korean War, the Arab-Israeli
conflict, the Cuban Revolution, the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the
Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Berlin
Crisis of 1961, the Cuban Missile
Crisis, the Vietnam War, the Yom
Kippur War, the Iranian Revolution
of 1979, the Soviet War in
Afghanistan, the Revolutions of
1989, the Persian Gulf War and
the Yugoslav Wars.
9. These conflicts are where both the
US and the Soviet Union are in
direct participation but not in direct
conflict or confrontation.
10. Both superpowers were involved
behind the scenes and used these
conflicts as “proxy wars” to
engage with each other without
escalating the Cod War into World
War III.

17. 5: ARENAS OF THE COLD WAR
11. The cold war did not
eliminate rivalries between
two super powers.
12. The US and USSR decided
to collaborate in limiting or
eliminating certain kinds of
nuclear and non nuclear
weapons.
13. The two sides signed three
agreements – Limited Test
Ban Treaty, Nuclear Non
Proliferation Treaty and The
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

18. 6: CHALLENGE OF BIPOLARITY
1. The five founders of NAM
i. Yugoslavia’s Josip Broz Tito,
ii. India’s Jawaharlal Nehru
iii. Egypt’s leader Gamal Abdel
Nasser
iv. Indonesia’s Sukarno
v. Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah
2. The first non-aligned summit was
held in Belgrade in 1961.
3. This was the culmination of at least
three factors –
i. Co-operation among these five
countries
ii. Growing Cold War tensions and its
widening arenas
iii. The dramatic entry of many newly
decolonized African countries into
the international arena. By 1960,
4. The first summit was attended by
25 member states.

19. 6: CHALLENGE OF BIPOLARITY
5. The latest meeting the 14th
summit was held in Havana
in 2006 which included 116
member states and 15
observer countries.
6. Many political systems and
interests joined international
movement.
7. Non alignment is not
isolationism since
isolationism means
remaining aloof from world
affairs.
8. Isolationism sums up the
foreign policy of the US from
the American War of
Independence in 1787 up to
the beginning of the First
World War.
9. India played an active role in
mediating between the two
rival alliances in the cause of
peace and stability.

20. 6 : CHALLENGE OF BIPOLARITY
10. Non alignment is not
neutrality.
11. Neutrality refers principally to
a policy of staying out of war.
12. States practicing neutrality
are not required to help to
end war or get involved in
wards or take any position
on the appropriateness or
morality of a war.
13. Non aligned states including
India were actually involved
in wars for various reasons.
14. They also worked to prevent
war between others and tried
to end wars that had broken
out.

21. 7: NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC
ORDER
1. The non-aligned countries
were more than merely
mediators during the Cold
War.
2. The challenge for most of the
non-aligned countries – to
develop more economically
the Least Developed
Countries and to lift their
people out of poverty.
3. Economic Development was
important for Least
Developed Countries.
4. Without sustained
development, a country
could not be truly free.
5. It would remain dependent
on the richer countries
including the colonial powers
from which political freedom
had been achieved.

22. 7: NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC
ORDER
6. The United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
brought out a report in 1972 entitled
Towards a New Trade Policy for
Development.
7. The report proposed to give –
1. Give the LDCs control over the
natural resources exploited by
the developed Western
countries.
2. Obtain access to Western
markets so that the LDCs could
sell their products and therefore
make trade more beneficial for
the poorer countries.
3. Reduce the cost of technology from
the Western countries.
4. Provide the LDCs with a greater role
in international economic institutions.
8. Gradually the nature of Non –
Alignment changed to give
greater importance to
economic issues.

23. 8 :INDIA AND THE COLD WAR
1. India followed a two way policy
regarding the cold war . It didn’t
join any of the alliances and
raised voice against the newly
decolonized countries
becoming part of these
alliances.
2. The policy of India was not ‘
fleeing away’ but was in favour
of actively intervening in world
affairs to soften the Cold war
rivalries.
3. The Non- Alignment gave India
the power to take international
decisions and to balance one
superpower against other.
4. India’s policy of Non-Alignment
was criticized on a no. of counts.
But still it has become both as
an international movement and a
core of India’s foreign policy.