NEW CPP: Post-Cold War & the 21st Century

Your Name Subject and Section Professor’s Name April 28, 2024 Post-Cold War and the 21st Century Question 1: The demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 gave rise to euphoria in Europe and became the most visible political landscape change in Europe. It marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War epoch, which led to the rearrangement of the world from the bipolar era dominated by the US and the Soviet Union to the more heterogeneous multipolar world order. Eastern Europe is where countries are quickly turning to democracy rather than pursuing communism. They get help and support from the European Union (EU). An awakening of the political consciousness, triggered by the loss of Soviet influence, eventually caused the disintegration of Yugoslavia into separate and conflicting states throughout the 90s (Hunt et al). What is known as local self-government grew bigger when regional independence was established; among them were Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, and later Montenegro and Serbia. Their presence, in particular the Bosnia and Kosovo wars, sparked considerable international engagement, including NATO military intervention, which served as indicative that a new role for Western military alliances was there to be played in the post-Cold War world (Silberman). From the point of view of the economy, the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in the second half of the 1990s resulted in a complete liberalization of economic systems in Eastern Europe that moved from a centrally planned economy to a market-oriented one. Such a shift was one of the most challenging periods in the country's history, characterized by high inflation, unemployment, and growing socioeconomic gaps among citizens. At the same time, it offered the area access to global markets, a flow of foreign investments, and membership in the European Union (Hunt et a...