Echoes of Cold War: The Prelude to World War Three

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The Cold War echos into contemporary foreign policy and military science. Both America and Russia have primed their interests in the Baltic States and Ukraine. While no state desires war, the threat is imminent. Memories of 1914 and the beginnings of World War I are eerily familiar in contemporary politics. Classical realism, constructivism, and neorealism can each be applied to see how the beginnings of World War Three are already unfolding.
I predict that the world will cease to remain a unipolar hegemony and that NATO’s legitimacy will be questioned. Due to the rise of nationalism, the world will progress towards a multipolar, unstable distribution of power, beckoning armed conflict between Russia and NATO states. I argue that war itself, …show more content…

Furthermore, it is human nature for states to pursue power as an end. Morgenthau highlighted the influence of nationalism, ideologies, and imperialism in a variety of forms. Classical realism additionally asserts that the international system is anarchic and that security dilemmas lead to war. Classical realism can thus be deployed to provide both a rationalization for and critique of American power after the war. World War I began because of classical realist theories of states’ lust for power by certain individual leaders, such as the Kaiser’s influence on Austria’s declaration of war on Serbia. In the Cold War, each state did not want to push the other too far, as it would ensure mutual destruction, but instead threatened each other just far enough to overcompensate and defend themselves. The Cold War was a product of US and Russian foreign policy interests in global …show more content…

It is not human nature that drives world politics, but rather a system where each state is in pursuit of gain, and its actions on an international arena depend on its individual interests. Anarchy of the international system is an order in itself. Concerned with its security and development, each state is in constant competition with other states. Power is central to understanding the relations among states. In pursuit of power makes states increase their arsenals, boost their economies and develop science and

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