International Relations...Political Science Essay

International Relations...Political Science - Essay Example As a result the USA and the Soviet Union were left as the world’s only superpowers. The Cold War would result from the rivalry of these superpowers, and only ended shortly before the demise of the Soviet Union itself. Since the end of the Cold War there has been many debates about the position of the USA as the only superpower, as well as whether it is waxing and waning as an empire. There were various military, political, ideological and economic causes for the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union as well as their respective allies. The remarkable feat was that the USA and the Soviet Union had been allies alongside Britain in the first place. Neither power had been in the Second World War from the start, nor would they have become involved without being attacked by Germany and Japan respectively. The Soviet Union had done the bulk of the fighting against Germany, whilst the USA had defeated Japan virtually single-handed. The conferences at Yalta and Potsdam were meant to regulate the post-war world and it was hoped that the relationships between the wartime allies would remain good. The Soviet Union expected to be able to do what it liked in Central and Eastern Europe whilst the USA with Britain believed that those countries would be free to decide their own futures. The Soviet leader Joseph Stalin never had any intention of that happening, by 1948 all the states of Central and Eastern Europe were under communist control, with the Soviet army having a presence in all of those countries, apart from Yugoslavia and Albania. The USA and the governments of Western European countries feared that the Soviet Union wanted to advance further west. Conversely the Soviet Union feared that the Americans wished to end Soviet hegemony over Central and Eastern Europe. Mutual fears and misunderstandings definitely contributed to the onset of the Cold War, with the USA fearing the Soviet Union’s