After the cold war realist, scholars did research to figure out what would be the future of the war torn central and Eastern Europe. They did not see much in terms of a prospective future. They predicted that this side of Europe would be plagued with war due to its proximity with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some of these scholars predicted that there would be rise of new political powers and nuclear weapons would get into East and Central Europe through its porous borders. Realisms dictated that war would repeat itself as long as political regimes kept on changing. Up until the occurrence of the cold war, no other theory seemed to hold water against this theory. The realist theory is seemed to be the dominant theory in international relations (Martin, p.12).
The influence of this theory is seen clearly during and after the events of the cold war. The cold war divided the world into two factions; one of capitalists led by the United States and the other a communist one led by the former Soviet Union. Both sides used diplomacy to gain new alliances. The Soviets were determined to spread their communist regime throughout the industrialized and the United States were determined to stop them. Both sides were strong and especially in possession of nuclear weapons. Therefore, they were afraid to start war with each other directly hence the term the cold war. So instead of all-out war, they settled to going into proxy wars and gaining as much allies as was possible.
Central Theoretical Differences between Early Utopianism and Modern Liberalism
The idea behind modern liberalism is freedom. This freedom comprises of its starting point and the most important values in which the doctrinal has been created (Warszawa, p.118). Other concepts of liberalism would lose their value and would not be applicable if freedom was not the central idea (Bialystok, p86). One of the fundamental assumptions of modern liberalism is the more the state has in terms of regulations and laws, the less freedom there is. This makes it seem like liberalism is endangered. Even in democratic systems of government, citizens get the short end of the stick in terms of freedom regardless of the fact that the state has laws safeguarding human rights. This is a clear lack of trust in citizens since the state strives to control individuals on different social standings.
Utopianism is derived from a Greek word, which means a fantasy place where everything is right and the inhabitants live an ideal life (Scheuerer, p.185). Although this is a place of fiction, it does not mean that the conditions did not exist in the past or cannot exist in the future. Utopianism is based on the hope for a society that is better than ours. The main characteristics of a Utopian society are that its constructs are theoretical. Secondly, the conditions of the society are perfected by nature and ideal for the inhabitants of that society. The third paradigm is the fact that the society has two points of reference, one historical and the other universal (Warszawa, p. 170). Utopianism is considered to be a realistic ideology based on the concepts of “critical-destructive and positive-projecting” (Ibidem, p. 171.)
Cold War International Politics
The cold war is in my opinion best explained using the modern liberalism theory. After the end of the cold war, many people expected peace to prevail. Stable political and commercial blocks were expected to be formed after the war nurturing an increase in trade between east and central Europe and the rest of the world. After the war, the United States became a world power. It used its security treaties to bring peace to Western Europe and East Asia and its economic power to order to the Soviet Union and east Europe. The US had a choice to either work with the United Nations and if it did not opt for that, the illiberal nations would not be in too much of an opposition. In doing so, the United States would encourage the rise of democratic states since they would be useful allies.
On the other hand, utopianism also played a role in post-cold war Europe. In this area, people saw utopianism as a way of life and as a result remade some of the equipment used in the war like inflatable buildings and geodesic domes for a newer nomadic life. Utopianism is
not the best way to describe the type of international relationships that occurred after the cold war. This is because even with the events taking place in East Europe, it was ironical. The irony lies in the fact that at this time the world was consumed by militarism, it was not a time to achieve technological advancements due to hardships in sustaining it.
This is why modern liberalism best explains the international relationships after the cold war as opposed to earlier utopianism.
