Conclusion
The 1990s thus proved a bewilderingly complex decade. By its conclusion neither the promise of globalization nor that of the ‘new world order' had been fulfilled. Indeed, the apparent success of free market capitalism and the eclipse of state- controlled socialism did not lead, either at the global or the regional level, to the elimination of economic hardship or to the reduction of political instability.
Moreover, the interdependence of the globalized world meant that the impact of hardship and regional instability became more difficult to contain than ever before. For those in the West, who ironically had come to see the Cold War as the years of a ‘long peace', in which conflict had been kept at bay by the terrible logic of MAD, the 1990s were a dangerous, uncertain time. As the Cold War receded, old nationalist conflicts such as those in the Balkans re-emerged and new ideological challenges that had in part been nourished by the confrontation between the superpowers in Afghanistan and Iran came into sharp focus. Thus while at the dawn of the new millennium the Cold War may have been relegated into history, its legacy lived on, influencing the world of the twenty-first century. In short, even as talk about the new American global empire proliferated, the world continued to be plagued by conflict and change. The major difference compared with the situation a century earlier was that as the pace of change accelerated it led to a transformation in the nature and scope, if not necessarily the causes, of conflict. As nuclear weapons proliferated and new terrorist threats emerged the world was no safer than before.Recommended reading
The best, if exhaustive, overview of Soviet-American relations at the end of the Cold War is Raymond Garthoff, The Great Transition: American-Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War (Washington, DC, 1994).
For various perspectives on the end of the Cold War readers should consult Beth Fischer, The Reagan Reversal: Foreign Policy and the Endofthe Cold War (Columbia, MO, 1997), Archie Brown, The Gorbachev Factor (Oxford, 1996), Michael H. Bernhard, The Origins of Democratization in Poland: Workers, Intellectuals, and Oppositional Politics, 1976-1980 (New York, 1993), Timothy Garton Ash, The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of1989 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin and Prague (New York, 1990), Charles S. Maier, Dissolution: The Crisis ofCommunism and the EndofEast Germany (Princeton, NJ, 1997), Jack F. Matlock, Autopsy on an Empire: The American Ambassador’s Account of the Collapse ofthe Soviet Union (New York, 1995), Gale Stokes, The Walls Came Tumbling Down (New York, 1997), Jacques Levesque, The Enigma of1989: The USSR and the Liberation of Eastern Europe (Berkeley, CA, 1997) and Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of our Times (Cambridge, 2005).For an analysis of the Soviet disengagement from Afghanistan and its impact on the collapse of the USSR (as well as a useful comparison of Vietnam and Afghanistan), see Sarah E. Mendelson, Changing Course: Ideas, Politics, and the Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Princeton, NJ, 1998). For an analysis stressing the role of the Communist Party elite in the process leading to the dissolution of the USSR, see David Kotz and Fred Weir, Revolution from Above: The Demise of the Soviet System (London, 1997). See also Michael McGwire, Perestroika and Soviet National Security (Washington, DC, 1991) and Robert English, Russia and the Idea ofthe West (New York, 2000).
A large number of books have been written on the 1990-91 Gulf War. A comprehensive analysis of the decision-making processes of both Iraq and the United States can be found in Amatzia Baram and Barry Rubin (eds), Iraq’s Road to War (New York, 1993). Two books situating the Gulf War in the broader context of the new world order are Tareq Ismael, The Gulf War and the New World Order: International Relations in the Middle East (Gainesville, FL, 1994) and Lawrence Freedman, The Gulf War 1990-1991: Diplomacy and War in the New World Order (London, 1993).
The Arab perspective is well articulated by Mohammad Heikal, Illusion of Triumph: An Arab View ofthe Gulf War (London, 1992).For general accounts of globalization and international relations in the 1990s, see William Greider, One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism (New York, 1997), Hans-Henrik Holm, Whose World Order? Uneven Globalization and the End of the Cold War (Boulder, CO, 1995) and Ian Clark, The Post-Cold War Order: The Spoils of Peace (New York, 2002). For works on the relations between the United States and the new Russia, see David Remnick, Resurrection: The Struggle for a New Russia (New York, 1998), James Scott, After the End: Making US Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War World (Durham, NC, 1998) and M. Bowker and C. Ross, Russia after the Cold War (New York, 2000). Various assessments of the US role in the world can also be found in Robert J. Lieber, Eagle Adrift (New York, 1997), Robert W. Tucker and David C. Hendrickson, The Imperial Temptation (New York, 1992), Peter Gowan, Global Gamble (New York, 1999), Michael Cox, US Foreign Policy after the Cold War (London, 1996), Michael Cox et al. (eds), US Democracy Promotion (New York, 2000) and William G. Hyland, Clinton’s World (Westport, CT, 1999). For an account of post-Cold War American defence planning and policy, see Michael Klare, Rogue States and Nuclear Outlaws (New York, 1999).
For reading on the Northern Ireland peace process, see Eamonn Mallie and David McKittrick, The Fight for Peace: The Secret Story behind the Irish Peace Process (London, 1996), George Mitchell, Making Peace: The Inside Story of the Making of the Good Friday Agreement (London, 1999) and Thomas Hennessy, The Northern Ireland Peace Process: Ending the Troubles (Dublin, 2000). For a comparative perspective on Northern Ireland and other ethnic, sectarian or communal conflicts see John McGarry, Northern Ireland and the Divided World: Post-Agreement Northern Ireland in Comparative Perspective (Oxford, 2001).
On the Balkan crisis, see Misha Glenny, The Fall of Yugoslavia (New York, 1992), Slobodan Drakulic, The Balkan Express (New York, 1993), Thomas Ali, Masters of the Universe? NATO’s Balkan Crusade (New York, 2000), A. Wachtel, Making a Nation, Breaking a Nation (Stanford, CA, 1998) and Brendan Simms, Unfinest Hour: Britain and the Destruction of Bosnia (London, 2001).