Poll 211 research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Poll 211 - Research Paper Example The war affected virtually every nation of the world as each moved to align themselves with either the U.S. or the Soviet Union. This paper examines how the Cold War affected the U.S. foreign policy then and now. In terms of its organization, a proxy of the Cold War is discussed. Next, the author explains the factors that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the resultant chaos. Next, the author discusses the impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union at three levels: the impact on scholars of international relations at the time and the impact on the U.S. foreign policy then and now. Finally, the author draws conclusions about international relations based on the findings of the research. A proxy war is fought alongside a major full-scale conflict(Leffler & Painter, 2005). Usually, a major power will instigate a proxy war without directly involving itself. Many proxy wars were fought during the Cold War. The wars provided opportunities for the United States and the Soviet Union to stage armed conflict â€Å"behind† the Cold War. The Greek Civil War was one of such proxy wars. The Greek civil war pitted the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE), supported by the U.S. against the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), whom Russia backed(Nachmani, 1990).The DSE wanted to gain control of the country from the KKE. Backed by and Britain and the U.S., the DSE were initially successful. Besides the backing by the two powers, the DSE had superior maneuvers in the battlefield. Meanwhile, the KKE made many political errors and Yugoslavia withdrew their support for them. Yugoslavia’s withdrawal marked the beginning of the fall of the KKE. In the end, DSE won the war. Greece largely abandoned Communism and the sphere of influence of democratic/capitalist ideals increased as did tensions between the two powers. In December 1991, Americas rival, the