Non-Alignment and the End of the Cold War

You’ll be able to

Explain the goals of the Non-Aligned Movement in the Cold War world
Analyze the causes of the Soviet Union’s collapse
Assess how the end of the Cold War reshaped the global order

A third path: non-alignment

Not every nation wanted to join the U.S. or Soviet camp. Many newly independent states pursued non-alignment, refusing formal alliance with either superpower. The Bandung Conference (1955) in Indonesia brought together Asian and African nations, and leaders like India’s Nehru, Egypt’s Nasser, and Yugoslavia’s Tito helped found the Non-Aligned Movement. Non-alignment let these nations assert independence, focus on their own development, and sometimes play the superpowers against each other to win aid — though staying truly neutral proved difficult amid Cold War pressures.

The Soviet system unravels

By the 1980s the Soviet Union faced deep trouble: a stagnant economy unable to match Western prosperity, the crushing cost of the arms race, an unpopular war in Afghanistan, and demands for freedom across Eastern Europe. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced reforms — glasnost (openness) and perestroika (economic restructuring) — hoping to save the system, but they instead unleashed forces he could not control. In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell and Eastern European communist regimes collapsed; in 1991 the Soviet Union itself dissolved, ending the Cold War.

A new global order

The Cold War’s end reshaped the world. The bipolar order gave way to a period of American preeminence and the spread of market economies and democracy into former communist states. Germany reunified, and new nations emerged from the former Soviet bloc. Yet the aftermath also unleashed ethnic conflicts (as in the former Yugoslavia) and left unresolved tensions. The collapse of communism as a global rival accelerated globalization, setting the stage for the interconnected, market-driven world of Unit 9.

Worked example

Explain ONE reason the Soviet Union collapsed by 1991. (SAQ-style reasoning)

1.Identify a cause: the Soviet economy was stagnant and could not keep up with the West or sustain the costs it bore.
2.Explain the pressures: decades of central planning produced inefficiency and shortages, while the arms race and the war in Afghanistan drained resources.
3.Connect to collapse: Gorbachev’s reforms (glasnost and perestroika) meant to fix these problems instead loosened control and emboldened demands for freedom, leading to the collapse of communist regimes and the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.

Answer: One reason was severe economic stagnation. The centrally planned Soviet economy grew inefficient and could not match Western prosperity, while the arms race and the war in Afghanistan drained resources. Gorbachev’s reforms of glasnost and perestroika, intended to revive the system, instead weakened central control and unleashed demands for freedom, contributing to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Checkpoint

The Non-Aligned Movement was made up of nations that sought to:

On the exam

For the Soviet collapse, marshal multiple causes: economic stagnation, the arms-race burden, the Afghanistan war, Eastern European pressure, and Gorbachev’s reforms (glasnost and perestroika) that backfired. Layering several factors makes a stronger causation argument than naming just one.

Checkpoint

Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost and perestroika were intended to:

Answer the 2 checkpoints as you read.