The year 1981 marked the foundation of Reagan government, the last Cold War administration in the United States of America (Garthoff 5). The vintage was the most vocal anticommunism crusader in the last two decades. The new administration seemed to be reluctant on soviet leadership and it ignored its large share responsibility. Carter administration had developed into the resultant bipartisan policy of the United States.
The collapse of the Soviet Union, the Marxist rule and the end of Cold War marked the beginning of a turning point and a historical divide. The new era grounded America-Russia relations and dealings with other successors of the USSR. The 1980s was the beginning of renewed Cold War and changes to 1990s at the finish of the Cold War. The Soviet Union and the United States were continuously searching though out the 1980s for a surrogate for the détente of the 1970s. Their relationship had collapsed in the 1970s after Soviet Union intrusion in Afghanistan and American response towards that intervention. Throughout the 1980s, diplomatic altercation and tension in the early years progressively changed to relaxation of anxiety later in the years.
Under the presidency of Ronald Reagan, various changes were witnessed. Both supporters and critics of His administration did not anticipate that in 1984 to 1985 Reagan would embrace arms control negotiations and summitry. President Bush pursued a more measured middle course and renewed dialogue but acting with caution on the issue of arms control. In 1989, revolutionary changes took place in Eastern Europe and radical transformation in United States- Soviet taking place before world-shattering changes in the Soviet Union.
The beginning of 1980 saw then transition of leaders in the Soviet Union from Leonid Brezhnev to new generation successor Mikhail Gorbachev. Besides leadership transition, Soviet international and domestic policies made a fluctuation. The policies seemed to provide solutions through new approaches that were previously deemed as insoluble. In the end of 1980 Soviet Union had come to an end and Unites States- Soviet relation ceased to exist. Throughout the first half of the 1980s, Ronald political bearing dominated the relationship between the two countries. At the end of the decade events as opposed to choice by leaders was the center stage of controlling relationship between the two countries. The rejuvenation of conflict early in the 1980s and the resurgence of détente late in the decade experienced a blend of cooperation and confrontation elements in America-Soviet relations before the collapse of the Soviet Union (Jervis 12). During the reign of Gorbachev, the Soviet Union embarked on the fundamental path of accommodating security policies that was influential to the end of Cold War.
The relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union and the role that each party played in the world remains of great importance to the entire World of politics. With the ending of communism in the collapse of the USSR in the year 1991, it is suffice to argue that relations between the United States and Russia began warming rapidly. The nature of international relations has shifted from a bipolar perspective of political and military ideological confrontation to a complex security economic and political relationship. The unfolding of America-Soviet relation in the 1980s has been fundamental in helping Russia and America develop ways of dealing with conflict of interest between the two nations and identifying areas of common interest such as cooperative security.
Works Cited
Garthoff, Raymond L. The great transition American-Soviet relations and the end of the Cold War. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1994. Print.
Jervis, Robert, and Seweryn, Bialer. Soviet-American relations after the cold war. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991. Print.
