What is the definition of an International System? There have been four International Systems in the 20 th Century, what was the most recent system? What IR system did we just study? 20 th Century International Systems?

 Cold War System- Bi- Polar System Soviet Union & the United States were the two main power centers after WWOII & WWI.

Cold War was the most recent IR System COMPETITION OF IDEOLOGIES- DEMOCRACY VS. COMMUNISM CAPITALISM VS. COMMUNISM

Propaganda in America Duck & cover drillsBomb Shelters

 Both the U.S. and U.S.S.R had enough bombs to destroy the world many times over! What stopped the superpowers from using their weapons…..Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)  The Soviet threat was weak, destroying America would not have benefited the Soviets!!!  More of a threat in Europe. Fear against communism in U.S. helps to fund defense budget. Was the Soviet Union really a threat!

Living Under Soviet Communism Advantages  Free Healthcare  Jobs for life  Free Education  Housing was provided  Security Disadvantages  Lack of Information  No Religion  Government control of most aspects of life  Purge of dissidents  Ultimate collapse of the economy!

 Why did the Soviet Union collapse?  What events mark the end of the Cold War?  Who where the leaders of the U.S. & the Soviet Union when it ended?  What happen to the countries that were part of the Soviet Union? When did the Cold War end?

 If guaranteed a job, nobody is inspired to work, production of faulty goods  Corruption in system  Emphasis on military and defense spending over consumer goods- bread lines and food shortages  Soviet Afghan War- economically drains “satellite nations” country  Supporting “satellite nations” drains economy  Hatred among different nationalities (ethnicities) in empire. Why did the Soviet Union collapse in 1989?

Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989

Mikhail Gorbachev reforms leads to collapse of U.S.S.R Glasnost literally openness- “opening to the press” Perestroika was the policy of restructuring or reforming the economic and political system The Soviet economy had been in a period of stagnation for two decades and was in desperate need of reform.

Commonwealth of Independent States  1990, the (CCCP) Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union agreed to give up its monopoly of power.  Over the next several weeks, the 15 republics of the USSR held their first competitive elections.

Common wealth of Independent States CIS

It is now the 21 st Century. What is the next International System? Bi- Polar, Multipolar, Unipolar?????

What is the next IR System? Unipolar, Bi- Polar, Multipolar, Stratified, Globalization

Bi- Polar China & the U.S.? U.S. & Russia?

Multipolar China, India, Russia, European Union, Brazil, United States…. Will these powers work together in a multipolar world ? BRIC Countries- Brazil, Russia, India and China Potential Super Powers!

Rise of Russia WIL THE U.S. AND RUSSIA ENTER INTO ANOTHER COLD WAR OR FIND SOME WAY TO COEXIST? WHAT IS RUSSIA LIKE TODAY/

Rise of Asia/ China Will the U.S. and China work peacefully together as two superpowers? Or will the two superpowers come into conflict?