AP Euro: Unit 19.1-19.2 - After the Fall: The Western World in a Global Age (Since 1985)

Toward a New Western Order

A New Russia

• In 1985, the Russians got a new leader named Mikhail Gorbachev.  Came from a peasant background.
• Economy struggling compared to American economy, people unhappy with communist rule, no freedoms, quality of life is lagging behind western nations.

• “We cannot go on living like this.  The practical actions of the party and state agencies lag behind the demand of the times and life itself….problems grow faster than they are solved.”

• Anxious to institute reforms to Soviet Society

A New Kind of Leader

• First thing he did was propose a series of reforms designed to save the failing communist regime
• Progressive. Introduces: 

• Perestroika (restructuring) of economy to allow some market freedom and ownership of private property

• Opposite of command economy

• Glasnost (openness).  Allowed (even encouraged) people and the media to openly discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the Soviet Union, and even criticize if they had the inclination and allowed foreign ideas such as rock and roll

• Fundamentally changed the Soviet Union.
• Newspapers feature stories of corruption, anti government protests, and previously banned western culture! (Jazz, Rock and Roll, etc)

A New Kind of Leader

• Called for the dissolution of the old Soviet parliament, and the creation of a new “Congress of People’s Deputies” chosen in competitive elections by the people
• Legalized the formation of other political parties
• Before elections, the First Secretary of the Party had been the de-facto leader of SU. 

• After elections, the ties between party and state were finally loosened.  Gorbachev instead became the first president of the Soviet Union in 1990.

A New Kind of Leader

• US was suspicious so for the USSR to prove themselves changed, the US encouraged Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall
• Worked WITH the west/US in a policy he dubbed “New Thinking”
• Initiated the plan for the INF treaty (1987) which limited the buildup of nuclear weapons, and both sides pledged to eliminate their intermediate range nuclear weapons
• Opened the border between east and west Germany, to allow people to leave (Mar 3, 1990).  
• Berlin Wall (kept people from going to free/west parts of Berlin) was destroyed, East Germany had its first free elections EVER, totally reunified by October , 1990

A New Kind of Leader

• Soviet Union was extremely large:

• made up of 92 nationalities
• 112 recognized languages (need LOTS of interpreters)

• Gorbachev’s reforms loosened the iron grip the SU had on many of these people, and old tensions resurfaced (Soviets thought these people were going to be grateful and stick in the USSR)

• Independence movements in Georgia, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Lithuania

• The Soviet military was unable to deal with these movements when violence inevitably erupted.  

• The military was not financially supported

• On March 11, 1990, Lithuania declared itself an independent state…..

A New Kind of Leader

• Gorbachev faced with the ultimate no-win scenario

• Wants to do the right thing and allow these nations the right to self-determination, 
• If he allows these nations the right to govern themselves, they will break away and the Soviet Union will collapse (cease to be)

• Many former parts of the USSR are truly multicultural (multiple ethnic groups living within them: multiculturalism) which will lead to violence between groups as they vie for power.

A New Kind of Leader

• Gorbachev refuses to send in the military to repress revolutions.
• A group of disgruntled traditional Soviet Party members and the institutions they represented (army, KGB, military industrialists) arrested Gorbachev and attempted to seize power and ensure that the SU survived.
• Gorbachev was unwilling to work with those who wanted to take power from him, so any possibility of him sending in the military to repress revolutions was destroyed

• Soviet satellite states moved for complete independence from Russia.

• Conspirators actually ensured the fall of the Soviet Union.
• In December of 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist

• Many nations break away and USSR loses most of population and land

• Gorbachev resigned on Christmas of 1991, and handed power to Boris Yeltsin.

Gorbachev was winner of Nobel Peace Prize, Time’s Man of Decade

Someone bought the many Lenin, Stalin statues and opened a Gulag-styled theme park 

A Quick Snapshot of Europe

• The collapse of one of the world’s largest empires had a tremendous impact on former Soviet satellite states in Europe and Asia.

• Poland and Hungary: hold free elections and elect new presidents, Gorbachev refuses to intervene, peaceful transition
• Romania: A bit violent.  Protests were ruthlessly crushed in 1989, dictator Ceausescu booed at a public rally, the army refused to support more repression, Ceausescu ousted.
• Czechoslovakia: Slavs and Czechs each form their own nation
• Ethnic cleansing (an attempt to destroy a particular ethnic group) of Bosnian Muslims in Yugoslavia……
• Wars in Kosovo and Bosnia

The Yeltsin Years

• Yeltsin would keep power until 1999.  During that time, he tried to transition Russia into a capitalist economy as quickly as he could
• Changes were very slow

• Many people resent Russia’s loss of prestige among world nations
• Hard line former communists resist the changes that Yeltsin is trying to make
• Even though many former soviet states broke away, more want to go

• Civil War in Chechnya (tiny nation) is the result of a Muslim minority population trying to break away from Russia and form their own nation.

• Shows just how weak the Russian military is, that they can’t even win this war.

• Yeltsin resigned in 1999.  Power transfers to Vladimir Putin

A Man Like Putin!

• Putin was eager to change the deterioration of Russia
• Very rigid, disciplined (former KGB (communist secret officer))
• Took a newer, more violent direction in Chechnya.  May have used chemical weapons.  Reduced their capital to ruins and put down the rebellion.
• Instituted reforms (Most of them centralize power for himself) but he does pass some very effective land and sales tax measures that actually had the Russian economy producing surpluses! (US only seem to be able to run deficits)
• Annexed part of Crimea (nation of Ukraine) illegally and almost sparked a war with the UN.
• Russian people seem to look the other way when Putin violates their constitution, because he has brought a sense of pride back to Russia

• Other nations condemn him but no one actually does anything

The Growing Role of Terrorism

• Ever since the Vietnamese and Afghans proved that superpowers could be defeated, terrorism has emerged as the fastest growing and most frightening aspect of the modern age.
• These terrorist groups used the hijacking of planes, bombings, taking hostages, and other less conventional (and civil) means in order to draw attention to their demands, destabilize an enemy’s government, break away from an existing country, or other political/social/military agendas.
• It remains a legitimate security concern for many nations.

The Growing Rate of Terrorism

• In 1972, still angry over the 6 Day War (which the US supported Israel and Israel won), a group of Palestinian terrorists kidnapped and killed 11 members of the Israeli soccer team at the Munich Olympic Games.

• Their Agenda: Get hundreds of Arabs released from Israeli prisons, millions watched the events unfold on television

The Growing Rate of Terrorism

• The IRA (Irish Republican Army) 

• Their goal: disrupt the government of the UK.  Have staged numerous terrorist attacks against the ruling government of Northern Ireland (backed by Britain)
• Large amount of support from local populations.
• Between 1980 and 2000, these attacks were responsible for the deaths of over 2000 people.
• Over 75% of the people they have killed have been civilians.

The Growing Rate of Terrorism

• Hezbollah, a paramilitary group with Iranian ties, kidnapped 7 Americans and held them hostage in Lebanon.

• Their goal: to make America look stupid, Get american grade military weapons so they could attack Israel.
• In order to free hostages, contrary to what they said in public, America facilitated the deal with Israel to actually sell arms to Iran, they would then use the proceeds (funds from drug dealers) to help topple the government of Nicaragua (communist).  Called the Iran Contra Affair (1985-1987) 
• American government caught in further scandal.

The Growing Rate of Terrorism

• On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four airplanes and targeted important American cities and government buildings.

• 2 airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center Buildings in New York
• 1 Airplane crashed into the Pentagon building 
• 1 Airplane was aimed was supposed to crash into the capitol building, but its passengers brought it down before it could hit anything.
• Patriot act was unanimously passed which allows government to deny people of rights guaranteed by the constitution

The Growing Rate of Terrorism

• The concern for the targets of terrorism is that many of these terrorist groups can be tied to legitimate nations who actually support them financially!

• How should we treat countries that fund terrorists to attack us?

The European Union

• The European Community had grown to 15 members by 1995 and officially renamed itself the European Union or EU
• Created a central European Bank
• Created a single unified currency (EURO) which replaced 17 national currencies!  More nations join!
• Abolished all trade barriers and border checks of good traveling across members states’ borders

• Free trade, free travel, no tariffs

• Became the world’s most productive economic zone!
• The Euro is now second only to the dollar as the world reserve currency (a BIG deal!)

• Accepted almost everywhere

EU Problems

• Really sucks at agreeing to foreign policy goals (who everybody is friends with)
• Did create a limited joint military, but not all nations contribute (because country sizes differ), and nobody contributes evenly with other nations (so some bigger nations rightly complain about this)
• Sometimes some nations experience depressions and depressions….how does that impact other nations?
• What happens when nations don’t agree with the policies set by the EU?
• What does the EU do when nations disobey the legislation passed by the EU?

Brexit

• British exit from the European Union
• England didn’t want to follow the EU immigration policy (too many immigrants coming in, taking British jobs, terrorism and violence follows them) but it wants to stay a part of the economic EU
• The other nations in the EU don’t want the UK to be half in….be all the way in, or all the way out.  (You don’t get to enjoy the economic benefits without following the policies too!)
• Most people in the UK didn’t really understand what they were voting on in the first Brexit Vote (which BARELY passed)

• Since then, a majority seem to favor no Brexit.  This costs the UK BILLIONS of dollars to be sitting on the fence (debating whether or not to leave the EU)!