HY 1020, Western Civilization II 1
UNIT VII STUDY GUIDE
The West in the Contemporary Era: New Encounters and Transformations
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
1. Identify the economic and political developments in the 1970s and 1980s that led to the fall of the Soviet Union.
2. Describe how the fall of the Communist superpower impacted international structures, boundaries, and agreements developed during the postwar era.
3. Describe the causes, outbreak, and outcomes of the notable revolutions from 1989-1991 and identify their significance to Western culture and politics.
4. List landmark events directly related to the Cold War era.
5. Define key political and economic terms related specifically to the late 20th century.
6. Describe the role technology played on the evolution from the modern to postmodern era.
7. Describe catalysts for the rise in violence in Europe and the Middle East at the end of the 20th century how it related to Western culture, and eventual outcomes.
8. Discuss how conflicts in the 21st century are more open to cultural elements, from religion to social media, and compare to the political conflicts discussed in the 16th-20th centuries.
Unit Lesson
At the end of the 1960s, the threat of nuclear war receded with the onset of détente, but that did not mean stability, as economic crisis heightened political and social polarization. The renewal of the Cold War at the end of the 1970s created further instability. The economic crisis of the 1970s challenged postwar social democratic assumptions and discontented voters looked for radically new answers, either in socialism, as in Spain, Portugal, and Greece, or in the New Conservatism. New Conservatives did not emphasize social improvement but instead promoted policies intended to create less governmental control and more opportunity for individual achievement, which would privatize state-owned businesses and dismantle the welfare state. They argued that the economic crisis was due to the increase in spending on social services.
The détente policies of the early 1970s were reversed later that decade, and Cold War tensions returned. Détente’s triumph came in 1975 when the United States, Canada, and European nations signed the Helsinki Accords, recognizing the existing borders and promising to safeguard human rights. On that wave of U.S. influence, soon Soviet and Eastern European dissidents were publicizing human rights abuses in their nations. The New Conservatives further increased the Cold War tensions by reviving anti-communist rhetoric, accelerating the arms build-up, and deciding to deploy nuclear weapons in Europeans countries; a move that engendered widespread protest.
Reading Assignment
Chapter 29:
The West in the Contemporary Era: New Encounters and Transformations, pp. 29-930, 932-935, 937-942, 943-949, 951-952, 964
Supplemental Reading
See information below.
Key Terms
1. Détente
2. Ethnic cleansing
3. European Union
4. Glasnost
5. Globalization
6. Green politics
7. Helsinki Accords
8. Islamism
9. New Conservatism
10. New feminism
11. Perestroika
12. Postindustrial society
13. Postmodernism
14. Solidarity
15. Stagflation
HY 1020, Western Civilization II 2
In the 1980s, Eastern European economic structures began to collapse from the burden of debt, and the Soviet Union’s new policy of charging its satellites market value for its oil. By 1990, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had ended the Cold War and brought about change in Eastern Europe, but he had not succeeded in bringing prosperity to the Soviet Union. Instead, the communist system he was trying to save was falling apart. Food and other essential goods remained scarce, prices had risen, and productivity and incomes were falling. Ultimately, however, Gorbachev was defeated by nationalism, which had resurfaced as separatist nationalist movements under glasnost. Unwilling to wage all-out war to preserve the Soviet Union, at the end of 1991, Gorbachev resigned as president of a country that no longer existed. Similar to the former Soviet Union, Eastern European countries struggled with high inflation, high unemployment, economic instability, nationalist hostilities, and even civil war. The West, which had for so long defined itself as anti-communist, anti-Soviet, and anti-Warsaw Pact, had to revise its identity after the end of communism and the Soviet Union. This was also at the same time as other social, political, and cultural changes were taking place.
After the Cold War, terrorism replaced communism as the West’s chief enemy, against which the West defined itself. Terrorism is anti-democratic in that it seeks to use violence and intimidation to achieve its political ends, but the history of the West’s political culture prevents an easy equation between the West and democracy. Terrorism grew in late 19th century anarchism, and anarchists, similar to contemporary terrorists, lacked access to political power. Unable to achieve their goals through the typical political process, anarchists attempted to destabilize governments through acts of terror. Thwarted nationalism can lead to terrorism. The Basque separatist group ETA in Spain and the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland used terror in their struggle to gain independence. However, by the 1990s, terrorism was particularly associated, in the mind of the West, with the Middle East and Islam. A major reason for this was the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The failure to implement the UN resolution with a promise of a Palestinian state led to the formation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964. The occupation of all Palestinian territory by Israel in 1967 led the PLO to turn to terrorism. American support of Israel caused many Muslims to view the United States as backing a repressive regime.
During the 1990s, anti-Western hostility increased as a result of the Gulf War of 1991, which freed Kuwait from Iraqi invaders. After the war, American forces remained in bases in Saudi Arabia. Their presence offended Muslims and fueled anti-Western sentiment. The wars in Bosnia and Chechnya also fed Islamist hatred of the West.
Islamists included Russia as part of the West, especially after the Soviet-Afghan War of 1979-1989. On September 11, 2001, the most deadly Islamist terrorist attack yet was made on New York City’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. After the attack, the United States attacked Afghanistan in October 2001, and American and British forces invaded Iraq in March 2003; this was the first large-scale preemptive war ever waged by the United States. Further terrorist attacks took place in Europe. The attacks in London on July 7, 2005 were carried out by British nationals, raising challenges to the “us” and “them” mentality.
The end of the Cold War, the formation of the EU, and the development of significant Muslim communities in Western Europe joined with intellectual, artistic, and technological developments to demand a re-definition of the West. Broadly speaking, postmodernism refers to a rejection of Western cultural
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supremacy, and more precisely, it represents a challenge to the notion that Western science and rationality represented a single, universally applicable standard of “modernity.”
The environmental crisis revealed the limits of Western governments, as environmental degradation proceeded despite treaties mandating environmental protection. Technological innovations, such as the personal computer, the fax machine, and the wireless telephone, not only made national borders more permeable but required that businesses be more flexible and able to immediately respond to changing markets and technologies. This spurred globalization and the worker became more vulnerable thanks to subcontracting, outsourcing, and downsizing in a world where companies were merging and fragmenting as they pursued efficiency and a competitive edge. In the new millennium, “the West” may no longer be a conceptual border marker, but it still retains a distinct identity, in particular in its ideal of democracy.
Reminder: Your final Annotated Bibliography is due in Unit VIII. You have up to three attempts to submit the assignment and receive the best grade possible, time permitting.
Supplemental Reading
Supplemental Readings are provided in the below links:
Defining Postmodernism http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0242.html
Postmodernism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/
Postmodern movement analysis (Florida International University) http://www2.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/pomo.html
Yalta Conference http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/1945YALTA.asp
Proclamation of Irish Republic http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/1916proc.jpg
Notes on the Berlin Wall http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/1961berlin-usa-ussr.asp
Nikita Krushchev: Secret Speech, 1956 http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/krushchev-secret.asp
Soviet Statement: Friendship and Co-operation Between the Soviet Union and Other Socialist States, October 30, 1956 http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/1956soviet-coop1.asp
Globalization Definition (Stanford) http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/globalization/
Additional Information About the ETA http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/flash/0,5543,191251,00.html
Additional Information About the IRA http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ira/
Additional Information About the PLO http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0618
Effects of Technological Developments on Globalization Process http://mediaif.emu.edu.tr/pages/atabek/GCS7.html
Wilson Center Digital Archive http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collections
***Always be conscious of potential bias in a source, especially online; look carefully at the author, audience, and intention of the web address.***
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