A more unstable world

Celebrations at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate included the toppling of giant dominoes to show how communist governments fell one after another in 1989, and a meeting between the new generation of politicians and the leaders of the Cold War era.

But did the world learn anything from the events of 1961 and 1989? How has the world changed as a result? Could it happen again?

According to Robert Kaplan, senior fellow at the U.S. Center for a New American Security (CNAS), the end of the Cold War has certainly led to a less stable world.

“I think that there is more danger of a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere that is not a test now than there was during the Cold War,” the visiting American scholar told The China Post in early October.

Without a doubt, the period of time following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Gulf War demonstrates that the U.S. dominance of the conventional portion of the spectrum of conflict has drawn adversaries to two extreme poles: the nuclear pole and the counter-insurgent's pole, pointed out Nathaniel C. Fick, chief executive officer at the CNAS.

“So in many ways, the Cold War now looks like stable golden years,” he said.

“I would say that the end of the Cold War significantly reduced the changes of cataclysmic nuclear war — in the way we contemplated it during the Cold War — I think that the changes for that have declined,” countered Abraham M. Denmark, fellow at the CNAS.

“But nuclear proliferation and emerging multipolarity is certainly leading to an international system that is less stable,” he admitted.

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