Description
Choose one only one:
1. Explain the combat contract and apply it to World War I or World War II, and Korea or Vietnam. Sources: Kindsvatter and lectures
2. Explain the bargaining and coercion explanations of World War I. Sources: Fromkin, lectures.
3. Use structural theory to explain the Cold War. Sources: lectures.
4. Use the combat contract to explain World War I combat behavior. Sources: lectures, Fromkin.
5. Explain the logic of war in terms of domestic commitment and combat compliance. Sources: lectures, Kindsvatter.
6. Use structure theory to explain the relative infrequency of major war in East Asia and its relative frequency in Europe post 1500. Sources: lectures; Andrade
Cite your sources, books, and lectures where relevant. Do not use outside sources
Must be 6-7 pages (cover pages don't count) with standard formatting (12point font, 1"borders, double spaced)
Explanation & Answer
Attached.
Running head: POLITICAL SCIENCE
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Political Science
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date
POLITICAL SCIENCE
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Structural Theory and the Cold War
Introduction
The Cold War was a heated rivalry which emerged after World War II between the
United States and the Soviet Union and their allied powers. The structural theory is a framework
that views the society as a complex system with distinct parts that work together for promoting
solidarity and stability in a country or internationally. Structural realists tend to believe that
power is the value of global politics because great powers are perceived to pay careful attention
to their economic and military strength in relation to each other (Waltz, 2000). The culmination
of World War II left countries that were great powers in strugglers to arm themselves in
readiness for any other war. This paper examines how the structural theory applies to the
ideology of the Cold War context and how it changes the course of international affairs.
The United States' National Security Council report of 1950 encouraged the development
of atomic weapons that would contain communists' expansion. The weapons resembled those
that ended the World War II in a mission that was termed as ‘arms race.' The move was to
counter the 1949 Soviet Union testing of their own atomic bomb. The then United States'
President (Truman) made an announcement that the country would make a more destructive
hydrogen atomic bomb. The Soviet Union leader, Starling followed the trend by making and a
fearsome atomic bomb. The Cold War rivalry was extended into space through space
explorations which showed the nations' mighty in rocket science (Waltz, 2000). The United
States launched its first satellite in 1958 for use by the military. The same year, the then
president Dwight Eisenhower launched a federal agency for space exploration and military space
POLITICAL SCIENCE
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potential (NASA). During the Cold War, two central powers were perceived to provide
‘structures’ for the course of action by the allied powers and other countries. The United States
and the Soviet Union structured a bipolar system in which they were in conflict. This system
created a sort of order that tamed the possibility of another major war that could erupt.
Even though the World War II ended after several international agreements, the incident
had taught many lessons to the great powers that fought the war regarding the importance of
military and economic ...