Post–Cold War era
Reacting to the rise of China, the United States began a gradual rebalancing of strategic forces to the Asia–Pacific region and out of Europe.
Though the post–Cold War era is generally agreed to be the current period of history, it has been argued that the era may have ended some time in the 21st century with the arguable rise of multipolarity and challenges facing the dominance of the United States, neoliberalism, and the liberal international order, with the possible beginning of a Second Cold War some time in the 2010s and 2020s.
Major crises of the period are generally agreed to have included the war on terror, war on drugs, Great Recession, rise of populism, COVID-19 pandemic, hybrid warfare predominantly using the Internet, and growing concerns surrounding climate change, political polarization, wealth inequality, and generative artificial intelligence.
The United States' newfound superpower status allowed American authorities to better engage in negotiations with the Soviet, including terms that would favor the U.S..
[3]During the Cold War, much of the policy and the infrastructure of the Western world and the Eastern Bloc had revolved around the capitalist and communist ideologies, respectively, and the possibility of a nuclear warfare.
The outcome symbolized a victory of democracy and capitalism which became a manner of collective self-validation for countries hoping to gain international respect.
The United States, having become the only global superpower, used that ideological victory to reinforce its leadership position in the new world order.
Using the peace dividend, the United States military was able to cut much of its expenditure, but the level rose again to comparable heights after the September 11 attacks and the initiation of the War on Terror in 2001.
[7] In response to the rise of China, the United States has strategically "rebalanced" to the Asia-Pacific region, though at the same time, began to retreat from international commitments.
Declining Cold War tensions in the later years of the 1980s meant that the apartheid regime was no longer supported by the West because of its anticommunism, but it was now condemned with an embargo.
Socialist and communist parties around the world saw drops in membership after the Berlin Wall fell, and the public felt that free-market ideology had won.
[12] Many other Third World countries had seen involvement from the United States and/or the Soviet Union, but solved their political conflicts because of the removal of the ideological interests of those superpowers.
[13] However, as the United States maintained global power, its role in many regime changes during the Cold War went mostly officially unacknowledged, even when some, such as El Salvador and Argentina, resulted in extensive human rights violations.
Countermeasures such as BMDS continue to be explored and improved upon post-Cold War, but are often criticized for being unable to effectively stop a full nuclear attack.
Despite advances in their efficacy, anti-ballistic missiles are often viewed as an additional piece to modern day diplomacy where concepts such as mutual assured destruction and treaties such as that between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev following their Reykjavík Summit.
[citation needed] The Second Cold War is sometimes used to refer to hightening geopolitical tensions in the 21st century, generally said to have started in the 2010s between the United States and either Russia or China.
