Cold War Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Influence== The Cold War continues to influence world affairs. The post-Cold War world is considered to be [[Polarity (international relations)#Unipolarity|unipolar]], with the United States the sole remaining [[superpower]].{{efn-ua|[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1217752.stm "Country profile: United States of America"]. [[BBC News]]. Retrieved 11 March 2007}}{{sfn|Blum|2006|p=87}} The Cold War defined the political role of the United States after World War II—by 1989 the United States had military alliances with 50 countries, with 526,000 troops stationed abroad,{{sfn|PBS|2004}} with 326,000 in Europe (two-thirds of which were in [[West Germany]]){{sfn|Duke|1989|p=175}} and 130,000 in Asia (mainly [[Japan]] and [[South Korea]]).{{sfn|PBS|2004}} The Cold War also marked the zenith of peacetime [[military–industrial complex]]es, especially in the Soviet Union and the United States, and large-scale [[History of military technology|military funding of science]].{{sfn|Calhoun|2002}} These complexes, though their origins may be found as early as the 19th century, snowballed considerably during the Cold War.{{sfn|Pavelec|2009|pp=xv–xvi}} [[File:Enlargement of the European Union 77.gif|thumb|Since the end of the Cold War, the [[European Union|EU]] has [[Enlargement of the European Union|expanded eastwards]] into the former Warsaw Pact and parts of the former Soviet Union.]] Cumulative US military expenditures throughout the entire Cold War amounted to an estimated $8 trillion. Further nearly 100,000 Americans died in the [[Korean War|Korean]] and [[Vietnam War]]s.{{sfn|LaFeber|2002|p=1}} Although Soviet casualties are difficult to estimate, as a share of gross national product the financial cost for the Soviet Union was much higher than that incurred by the United States.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=213}} In addition to the loss of life by uniformed soldiers, millions died in the superpowers' [[proxy war]]s around the globe, most notably in eastern Asia.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=266}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Kim|first=Samuel S.|chapter=The Evolving Asian System|title=International Relations of Asia|publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]]|date=2014|isbn=9781442226418|page=45|quote=With three of the four major Cold War fault lines—divided Germany, divided Korea, divided China, and divided Vietnam—East Asia acquired the dubious distinction of having engendered the largest number of armed conflicts resulting in higher fatalities between 1945 and 1994 than any other region or sub-region. Even in Asia, while Central and South Asia produced a regional total of 2.8 million in human fatalities, East Asia's regional total is 10.4 million including the Chinese Civil War (1 million), the Korean War (3 million), the Vietnam War (2 million), and the Pol Pot genocide in Cambodia (1 to 2 million).}}</ref> Most of the proxy wars and subsidies for local conflicts ended along with the Cold War; interstate wars, ethnic wars, revolutionary wars, as well as refugee and displaced persons crises have declined sharply in the post-Cold War years.{{efn-ua|Monty G. Marshall and Ted Gurr, {{cite web|url=http://www.systemicpeace.org/PC2005.pdf|archive-date=24 June 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080624210152/http://www.systemicpeace.org/PC2005.pdf|title=Peace and Conflict|url-status=dead|access-date=1 June 2016 }}, Center for Systemic Peace (2006). Retrieved 14 June 2008. {{cite web|url=http://www.systemicpeace.org/PC2005.pdf|archive-date=24 June 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080624210152/http://www.systemicpeace.org/PC2005.pdf|title=Peace and Conflict|url-status=dead|access-date=1 June 2016}}}} However, the aftermath of the Cold War is not considered to be concluded. Many of the economic and social tensions that were exploited to fuel Cold War competition in parts of the Third World remain acute. The breakdown of state control in a number of areas formerly ruled by communist governments produced new civil and ethnic conflicts, particularly in the former [[Yugoslavia]]. In Central and Eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War has ushered in an era of [[economic growth]] and an increase in the number of [[liberal democracy|liberal democracies]], while in other parts of the world, such as Afghanistan, independence was accompanied by [[failed state|state failure]].{{sfn|Halliday|2001|p=2e}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page