General Peace, Clash of Ideologies, the Fall of the Berlin Wall, and nuclear weapons are four fundamental elements that ring into the minds of political scientists upon mentioning the Cold War. The cold war commenced shortly after WW2. It was a prolonged peaceful struggle between the two significant superpowers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) and the United States of America. The war is sometimes called the long peace because the two superpowers devoted their money and time to ensuring that the war doesn’t get into a hot war with each other. The Americas bolstered their renewed democracy post WW2 while the Soviet Union focused on spreading communist principles across Eastern Europe, making the U.S.S.R. the largest country in the world. The U.S. tried to counter the growing Soviet Union by allocating numerous resources to the captured states. Despite its size, the Soviet Union was destined to be on the losing side of the Cold War. Several things alluded to the eventual collapse of the U.S.S.R., such as economic downfalls, Afghanistan military conflict, the eventual disaster at Chernobyl, and the failure of realism.

The consistent scarcity of consumer goods led to the economic downfall of the Soviet Union. The hoarding of goods might have led to a drastic shortage of consumer goods. According to Ray (n.d), the Soviet economy was the second-largest economy globally by 1990. However, this economy registered an unprecedented downfall because of a shortage of essential goods that led to market inflation, constant money printing, mismanaged fiscal policy, and a wage hike detrimental to any economy. The high inflation in the soviet economy made people resort to black markets for rudimental shopping, which accounted for ten percent of the soviet economy. Continuous money printing spiraled inflation in the Soviet Union, exacerbating the already dire economic situation of the region. Consequently, there was an unprecedented skyrocket in wages of the workforce which strained the wage bill of the Soviet Union. The mishandling of the fiscal policy contributed to the economic downfall of the Soviet economy as it made it susceptible to external factors, which eventually led to the plummet of the oil prices that was the last nail on the coffin of the Soviet economy. The drastic drop in oil prices brought severe financial repercussions to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union continued to dump money into defense spending and military, notwithstanding their financial inadequacies, and this escalated with the election of Ronald Reagan (Ray, n.d). Reagan was a Republican who subscribed to the principles of the realists. In his victory acceptance speech, he affirmed that realism, dialogue, and strength were to be the fundamental pillars of his foreign policy. His foreign policy style critically shaped international politics between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. He promised to pursue realism up to the last drop of his blood. He declared the Soviet Union an evil empire, making him invest heavily in the American military to counter the Soviet Union. Realists contend that national interests supersede moral concerns and would pursue national agenda in disregard of morality.  Realists argue that both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. are equal powers and should operate with the same rules to pursue national interests. The decision of Ronald Reagan to invest in the American military prompted the U.S.S.R. to pump more cash into their army to counter the U.S. military. The economic situation of the Soviet Union was already wanting, and this was, therefore, a terrible move. It then led to the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union due to financial challenges.

The Soviet involvement in Afghanistan is one of the essential military elements that contributed to the downfall of the Soviet Union (Reuveny &Prakash,1999). The Afghanistan war influenced soviet politics in four fundamental ways that might have contributed to the union’s collapse. Firstly, the change in perceptions. The war immensely altered the mindset of leaders regarding the utilization of the military as a glue for the union and intervention in overseas states. The soviet media contend that the Afghanistan government had invited a military intervention of the Soviet Union by 1980 in the war in non-combat and humanitarian areas. 1986 was a watershed moment for the war in Afghanistan. The Mujaheddin, who happened to be the Afghanistan freedom fighters, successfully countered the soviet army after utilizing some of the best air missiles obtained from the U.S. The Soviet military led by Gorbachev, who became the general secretary in 1985, downplayed the involvement of the Soviet army in the Afghanistan war. They aspired to the liberals’ ideals of maintaining top secret as a means of protection in a foreign land (Lecture 2). Many of the Afghanistan people hailed from the non-Russian populations, which the soviet was at war with, and therefore revealing their presence would be detrimental to their survival. The failure of the Soviet leaders to recognize the existence of Afghanistan fighters attracted immense bitterness to the soviet leaders, which drew unprecedented anti-militarism from the non-Russian Soviet republics. The soviet leadership perception then changed on the use of military force in achieving country unity. Liberal internationalism underscores the use of global cooperation as a mode of pursuing national interests and disregards military force because of its adverse consequences (Bell,2016). Instead, liberalists prefer social and economic power to military power in the hunt for national goals. The force of liberalism might have influenced the change in perception of the soviet leadership on military force; however, the fall of the Soviet Union was still imminent because of the deployment of military force.  The war eventually depicted soviet leadership and media as an international obligation that has to maintain the spirit of neighborliness.

Secondly, military effects. The Soviet army was a precious institution because of its fundamental role in WW2.  It was comprised of soldiers drawn from various nationalities of the Soviet society. It was the principal guardian of communism that the Soviet Union propagated in multiple states. The army’s perception of being indomitable made it the binding factor of the diverse ethnic lines of the Soviet Union. The massive number of soviet casualties and the dismal performance of the soviet army in Afghanistan has a significant contribution to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many Soviet soldiers lost their lives in the war leading to lose of hope for the remaining soldiers. The Soviet military adamantly refused to own up to their poor performance in the Afghanistan war. General Varenikov is on record defending the army that they were opposed to the military intrusion in Afghanistan. He blames the Soviet political leadership and asserts that they should bear the consequences of military intervention in Afghanistan. Several factors like hostile conditions for the troops have a bearing on their dismal performance. The Soviet soldiers had to endure guerrilla warfare in the most inhumane conditions ever witnessed in human history (Kalyvas & Balcells,2010). Consequently, they could not successfully wage a formidable battle against their opponents. The Soviet Ministry of Defense poll findings reveals that harsh environmental conditions encountered by the army deprived them the happiness leading to their dismal performance. Moreover, they were in a relentless collision with the Afghan civilians who were pro Mujaheddin. All these horrendous situations led to a loss of purpose among most soldiers, adversely impacting their abilities.   However, specific military engagements in Afghanistan are barbaric and led to many questions regarding the institution’s legitimacy. They perpetrated certain atrocities in Afghan that casts a lot of doubt on the internationalism of the institution. One of the soldiers who was a participant in the war alludes in a press interview in 1989 that some of their actions in Afghan are regrettable, for they are shameful to be affiliated with the military (Rauveny &Prakash,1999). He wonders whether they were spreading the philosophies of internationalists or they were busy destroying lives.

The army was very ruthless on women and children. According to the Helsinki watch reports of 187, the Russian military entered houses slaying all the residents, primarily children and women, by firing gunshots on their heads. Such atrocities by the army led to a loss of moral confidence for the military among Soviet netizens. Feminism is an influential international relations theory that places high respect for various genders in international politics (Brown,1998). It fronts gender issues within the arena of global politics. Moreover, it recognizes the contribution of women in shaping international politics. The implementation of feminist policies in international politics has pushed women into senior political positions due to the elevation of gender equality. The constructive effects of feminism are radically shaping foreign and domestic policies. Also, feminists suggest that women deserve equal respect for their rights as their male counterparts. Women have been at the center of all forms of mistreatment, and hence feminist ideologies are immensely initiating a paradigm shift in the conduct of global politics. The behavior of the soviet army by killing women was a violation of the standards of feminism which is a fundamental international relations theory. The military operations in Afghanistan were in contravention of the feminism doctrine of respect for women. Consequently, the military effect led to the downfall of the Soviet Union as public trust in the army dwindled.

Thirdly, legitimacy effects. The Soviet Union was a community of individuals from different nationalities. A number of these nationalities had a history of war against each other. The Afghan war heightened the bad blood between most groups as the non-Russian soviet professed it as a Russian battle involving the non- Russian soldiers. To worsen the situation, Afghanistan, the opponent, had three communities of Uzbeks, Tajiks, and Pashtuns, who happened to be some of the communities of the soviet army soldiers. It would be challenging for people from the same ethnic line to fight each other as they consider themselves as brothers and sisters who would never wish to break the cordial relationship that coexists. It is imminent that the Afghanistan war escalated the cleavages between the Soviet state and non-Russian republics. As a result, it provided a fertile ground for developing the secessionists’ schedules that triggered anti-war protests. Therefore, the legality of the Soviet structure in the lens of non-Russian personalities received a significant blow leading to the collapse of the mega union. Lastly, the glasnost effect. The military intervention of the Soviet society led to the sprouting of numerous political participations like the glasnost, which threatened the survival of the communist party. It threatened the communist party because the war offered fertile ground for the followers of perestroika and glasnost to renew their relationship between the Soviet state and the citizens. In this regard, the war altered the entire psychology of the soviet society to make perestroika the significant beneficiary of the renewed relationship.

The disaster at Chernobyl is also a factor in the collapse of the Soviet Union. The tragedy happened in 1986, leading to the pollution of over one hundred thousand kilometers of land. According to Veen (2013), the aftermath of the disaster was thousands of people homeless, without belongings, and even lost jobs. The government was compelled to reallocate resources for resettlement, proper healthcare, cleanup, and compensation to mitigate the effects of the tragedy.  The disaster brought adverse impacts to the agricultural sector as the contamination rendered the previously fertile land infertile leading to the plummet of farming investments.  The communities that witnessed the damaging effects of the disaster were Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia (Veen,2013). The social costs imposed on the communities by the tragedy led to a drastic decline in their social and economic lives. A collective agreement between the affected communities and the government was central to allocating resources to the affected districts.  Social fact is key to proper resource allocation. The constructivists define a social fact as that which is agreed upon in society (Lecture 2).  Moreover, they contend that there should be a collective understanding of state decisions shared under collective norms. Constructivists also argue that interests are not given, but they exist. However, the government initially tried to downplay the interests of the communities struck by the disaster, which then bolstered people’s distrust of the Soviet Union. Consequently, with the already crippled Soviet economy, the Chernobyl tragedy was the last setback they could endure as compensation and resettlement plans were too costly.

The failure of realism is also a contributor to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Realism is a standard theory throughout the cold war, and many scholars attribute it to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Realism, a concept in international politics, contends that nations act out of national interests and may masquerade moral concerns.  The Soviet Union’s expansion in Eastern Europe is a clear exhibition of the realists’ ideals. The Soviet Union spread the message of communism to their countries as they communized them across Europe (Wohlforth,1994). Realism had been robust during the cold war that attempts to displace it were constantly confronted by the prolonged salience of the US-Soviet resentment.  According to Puchala (2013), the U.S. and the Soviet Union are the dancing dinosaurs of the cold war because of their superiority. They are the two powers which heavily invested in the cold war to avoid any instance of sliding into hot war which could be detrimental to both of them. Polarity is an important concept in international relations that denotes the spreading of power within intercontinental systems. Realists hold different views regarding multipolarity and bipolarity. Walt propose that bipolarity is more stable than multipolarity. It implies that there exists some balance in the military power. He attributes the stability of bipolarity to its inflexibility. Bipolar systems have no dilemmas during the formation of alliances. On the other hand, modern realists like Kaplan and Thao thinks that multipolarity is more stable than bipolarity and links flexibility to its stability (Lecture 2). The formation of alliances brings dilemmas to states in multipolar structures. The bottom line is that the failure of the realists’ arguments depicted by the abrupt end of the cold war when the Soviet Union was amassing many powers might have led to its collapse.

In a nutshell, the Afghanistan military conflict, disaster at Chernobyl, the Soviet Union’s economic downfall, and the failure of realism are fundamental contributors to the collapse of the Soviet Union. International relations theories play a significant role in the engagement of the U.S.S.R. and the United States of America during the cold war. The Soviet Union’s decision to spread the communists’ message across states of eastern Europe to amass power significantly influenced international politics. U.S.S.R. infiltrated most free countries and transformed them into communist states, making it the world’s largest country. International relations theories like realism, liberalism, feminism, and constructivism are relevant to the downfall of Soviet society. Feminism, for instance, was at stake when the Soviet army executed brutality on women and children during the Afghanistan war military intervention. The military violated human rights, which then attracted uproar from Soviet Union citizens. Conformity to the spirit of internationalists is central to survival in international politics.

References

Bell, D. (2016). 3. What Is Liberalism? In Reordering the World (pp. 62-90). Princeton University Press.

Brown, S. (1988). Feminism, international theory, and international relations of gender inequality. Millennium, 17(3), 461-475.

Kalyvas, S. N., & Balcells, L. (2010). International system and technologies of rebellion: How the end of the Cold War shaped internal conflict. American Political Science Review, 415-429.

Puchala, D. J. (2013). Theory and history in international relations. Routledge.

Ray, M. (n.d.). Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse? Retrieved May 18, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/story/why-did-the-soviet-union-collapse

Reuveny, R., & Prakash, A. (1999). The Afghanistan War and the Breakdown of the Soviet Union. Review of International Studies, 25(4), 693-708. Retrieved May 18, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20097629

Veen, M. V. D. (2013). After Fukushima: revisiting Chernobyl and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Rethinking Marxism, 25(1), 121-129.

Wohlforth, W. (1994). Realism and the End of the Cold War. International Security, 19(3), 91-129. doi:10.2307/2539080