The Era of Detente Begins
Many explanations exist for why the Cold War never turned into open conflict. Memories of the horrors of World War II certainly played a part. Most of the world's leaders in the 20 years after 1945 had experienced the war directly and understood its uncompromising and destructive nature. As the two superpowers produced increasingly destructive weapons, including the "superbomb" (hydrogen bomb) in 1952, they became increasingly fearful of an all-out war. They understood that nuclear weapons and, from the late 1950s, intercontinental missiles could produce terrible levels of mutual destruction.In 1963 nuclear testing above ground was banned. In 1968 the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and 59 other nations agreed on a nonproliferation treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. A year later, the first arms limitation talks (SALT I) began. The period of so-called détente that followed produced further agreements on reducing armaments.
In 1975 the Helsinki Accords were signed between 33 European states, the United States, and Canada. The agreements committed the signatories to accept the existing frontiers of Europe, drawn up in the 1940s, and to promote human rights. In 1977 further agreement was reached in the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Convention, which defined more effective protection for civilians from the effects of war. In the 1980s, a new round of negotiations (START) was initiated by U.S. president Ronald Reagan, which led to more comprehensive arms limitation agreements by 1987.
One of the significant contributions to the long period of peace lies in the stabilization and revival of the international economy. Some of the rivalry and violence of the interwar years had been fueled by industrial and financial crisis, the closure of markets, and beggar-my-neighbor economic policies. From the 1940s to the 1970s, the developed world experienced an economic boom of unprecedented scale. The newly emancipated areas of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa stimulated the boom by demanding industrial products and supplying food and raw materials in return. The Soviet bloc also experienced high levels of planned industrial development.
The boom owed a great deal to international cooperation. In 1947 a General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs was signed, which freed world trade from the protectionist straitjacket of the 1930s. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund kept world currency and trading systems more open and flexible while modern industrial corporations developed more sophisticated and increasingly global operations. In Europe, major new trading blocs stimulated high levels of employment and trade. These blocs included the European Economic Community (forerunner of the European Union), founded in 1957, and the Communist COMECON organization, set up in 1949. Economic management, informed by improved macroeconomic theory, replaced the traditions of liberal free-market economics.
Among the most striking beneficiaries of the boom were Germany, Italy, and Japan. The three former Axis partners became major international economies, thoroughly integrated with the West and sharing access to international resources on equal terms. After 1945 there was never again talk of territorial "living space" as the answer to economic difficulties. Japan and Germany built into their new constitutions a prohibition on using their armed forces for any military activity outside their frontiers. When the economic boom slowed down in Germany in the 1980s and in Japan in the 1990s, there was no serious political backlash.
On the next page, read about how the fall of the Soviet Union opened the door for a new global enemy: terrorism.
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