The Peaceful Ending of the Cold War and International Relations Theories

This article focuses on the failure of International Relations theories to anticipate the end of the Cold War. The end of the Cold War regarding International Relations theories was unexpected in two ways. The bipolar structure was resolved and transformed while it was thought to endure and secondly this trasformation come out to be peaceful. It is argued that the failure to anticipate the end of the Cold War by theories of International Relations is primarily related to the dominance of Realism and especially neorealism on this subject. Thus, this paper is focused especially on the central assumptions of neo-realism and its view of the Cold War. The peaceful end is argued to be inconsistent with assumptions of neo-realism about war as well as its general logic. Besides, it will be shown that the dominance of neo-realism is closely related to its commitment to positivism and especially the US position in world politics, thus the focus given to explain the endurance of the order or the “long peace” caused to overlook the possibilities for change. Finally after discussing different views about the process of ending the Cold War, it will be shown that this end was caused by factors necglected by Neo-realism.