Global geopolitical confrontations in the post-Cold War era and the role of Cuba

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.14.2.0252
• Published date: 20 January 2023
• Date: 20 January 2023
• Pages: 252-271
• Author: Carlos Oliva Campos,Gary Prevost
• Subject Matter: Post-Cold War,hegemony,Cuba,conflicts,enemies

InternatIonal Journal of Cuban StudIeS 14.2 WInter 2022

ACADEMIC ARTICLE

GLOBAL GEOPOLITICAL CONFRONTATIONS

IN THE POST-COLD WAR ERA AND THE

ROLE OF CUBA

Carlos Oliva Campos

Department of History, University of Havana

Gary Prevost

Department of Political Science, College of St Benedict and St John’s University

Abstract

The authors begin from the premise that it is useful to analyse broad trends in

international affairs by identifying key moments of change. The primary focus is the

current phase of international affairs that has been labelled the post-Cold War world.

The authors accept that the fall of the USSR at the end of 1991 marked an important

change in geopolitics but argue that the 30-year time period since the fall of the

Soviet Union has been marked by some very important changes. The era began with

a seemingly omnipotent United States that proclaimed a New World Order of peace,

prosperity and democracy. The authors analyse how that vision did not come to pass

in the context of wars in the Middle East and the rise of China as a great power and

the recovery of Russia. Cuba’s role in the post-Cold War era is analysed and preliminary

thoughts are made on the potential changing world order in the context of the Russia-

Ukraine War.

Key words: Post-Cold War, hegemony, Cuba, conflicts, enemies

Introduction

We are living in very turbulent times for the international system as a whole.

Late in the year 32 of the so-called post-Cold War, it can be seen how this defini-

tion is compromised, drowned in the continuous armed conflagrations that have

DOI:10.13169/intejcubastud.14.2.0252

GLOBAL GEOPOLITICAL CONFRONTATIONS IN THE POST-COLD WAR ERA 253

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been generated and continue to exist. A scientific inquiry into the matter consid-

ers the main factor around which the dynamics of conflict are known to revolve

and interact. The global hegemony imposed by the United States after World

War II entered the post-Cold War period trying to heal the wounds it suffered

after exercising its leadership for decades. The realities of that burden were too

obvious not to be detected; above all when a new global geostrategic board is

being created with actors such as Russia and China challenging US hegemony.

While it is true that the United States emerged as the great victor of the Cold

War, the enormous costs it has had to pay in all aspects cannot be hidden, not

least for its economy. Let us remember that this hegemonic project of the United

States was based on the gradual construction of an enormous international

superstructure, to sustain or support all the powers that the nation had to

exercise. Its hegemonic system was structured by interweaving and articulating

mechanisms to control the main spheres of international relations, namely, the

economy, finance, trade, diplomacy and military alliances. And of course, the

“American way of life” was also exported and promoted around the world. But

a classic Cold War protagonist like George Kennan wrote:

No one won the Cold War. It was a protracted and costly political rivalry, stoked

on both sides by unrealistic and exaggerated estimates of the other side’s

intentions and strength. That rivalry greatly depleted the economic resources of

both countries, leaving them both, in the late 1980s, confronted with heavy

financial, social, and – in the case of the Russians – political problems that they

had not foreseen and for which neither was fully prepared. (Kennan 1998:

210–1)

Kennan noted the existence of very real problems with the costs that the United

States had to pay to “win the Cold War”.

The United States emerged into the post-Cold War period with public debt

and fiscal deficit. The information offered by the Spanish researcher Saturnino

Aguado allows us to visualise the evolutionary trends of both problems. After

1986 the United States became a debtor nation with long-term negative conse-

quences (Saturnino Aguado 1990: 215).

In 1990 Stanley Hoffmann provided a more comprehensive and severe diag-

nosis of the general situation of the US economy. For Hoffmann, the economic

power to be exercised as a fundamental part of American foreign policy had

declined, and the country was increasingly dependent on external sources for the

production of important technologies. The author identified significant domestic

problems in terms of energy infrastructure, insufficient productive investments

and loss of leadership skills in increasingly essential sectors of the national