Introduction

The Cold War world order was even more unusual in the congruence it achieved between internal and external settlements. The socialist bloc purported to be an alliance of similar social systems, and its constituents shared a great deal, particularly in the way political power was distributed and exercised. The economic, political, and human costs of waging the Cold War were extraordinary for both sides, but each was willing to undertake the task. The demonizing rhetoric of the early Cold War obscured far more than it illuminated and is seriously misleading as historical description. The Cold War simultaneously prolonged Western domination and allowed non-Western states to begin to assert their autonomy. The end of the Cold War not only marked the passing of a particularly effective geopolitical settlement but also definitively concluded the competition between the liberal and socialist models of the good society.