Journal of Danubian Studies and Research, Vol 2, No 2 (2012)

Abstract

The most important consequence of the Cold War was that "it leaped the pressure cooker
lid of the planet." There were issued, thus the determining energies in the globalization acceleration
and its assertion as the current main feature of the international system. Cold War demonstrated,
firstly, the rule of the West in its ideological confrontation with communism. Although the massive
military expenditures of NATO countries had their importance in deterring a possible Soviet
aggression, which brought to its knees "The Evil Empire"; it was the antithesis between communist
demagogy and the political, social and economic performance from the West. Constantly under the
threat of a nuclear Armageddon, the Cold War "was a global, systemic, long-term conflict, between
two power blocks sustained by incompatible ideologies. It was a global war, accompanied by wars
around by the inference of the entire world. It was a "one-dimensional" confrontation, well organized,
guided by the written and unwritten principles, accepted by the main opponents and by their allies.
The fact that the international system in the years after 1989 was dominated by the U.S. military was
a good thing, its effect being the reduction of chances that, in a period of profound changes, a war
between great powers would take place. Post-Cold War period, although it was registered a number of
wars, especially civil ones, cannot be said in any case that it was characterized by a major risk of a
war between great powers.