International Policy in the Change of Millennium (1990-2010) (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain the key aspects to understand international relations from 1990 to 2010.

With the attack on the Twin Towers in 2001, the United States was first attacked in sixty years.

How is international politics in the 21st century?

Since the 21st century began, the world’s international political scene became deeply transformed in relation to the last decades of the previous century. With the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, the fall of the Soviet Union (USSR) left The United States as the only world superpower and created a “political emptiness” in the ancient territories that were within the communist bloc that strongly changed the world landscape.

In Europe, Germany met, the ancient “popular democracies” democratized and The European Union extended east, and gathered 27 nations in 2006. Russia reconstituted its economy emphasizing its character as an oil exporter and, from the rise of Vladimir Putin to the Presidency, decreed the restriction of political freedoms inside and sought its place as power abroad.

Meanwhile, in Asia, China had spectacular economic growth by integrating aggressive capitalism with the political organization of a communist dictatorship. India has also had exponential growth linked to the development of information technologies. In Muslim countries, Islamism spread and put the region as one of the key factors of international relations.

On the other hand, African countries continued to cross the consequences of the decolonization of the continent. The incompatibility between territorial borders and cultural identities was exacerbated with the influence of the economic interests of foreigners, specifically concerned with the exploitation and extraction of the natural resources of the continent. Under these conditions, The civil wars in Africa cost millions of dead.

In Latin America, on the other hand, the restoration of democracies was accompanied by continuous economic crises inherited from the great debts taken at the time of dictatorships. With the creation of regional organizations, Latin American countries began to defend their local economic interests in the face of the influence of the United States.

The great powers

21st century in Europe

With the fall of the USSR, the European Union integrated the former communist countries of the east of the European.

The fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War accelerated the integration processes of Western Europe and the transition to capitalism in Eastern Europe.

The dissolution of the USSR allowed the democratization of the ancient “popular democracies” and enabled access to the independence of the Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. These countries requested their entry into the large Western institutions (European Union and NATO) and began their transition to a capitalist market economy.

On the other hand, the transition of Yugoslavia was marked by violence and nationalist conflictssituation that led to the formation of new countries: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia.

Yugoslavia was composed of differentiated peoples (Slovenians, Croats, Serbs, Muslim Bosnians, Macedonians, Montenegrinos, Albaneses …) that Tito’s dictatorship had kept together. At the beginning of the crisis of the communist system, nationalism became the great mobilizing force of a population overwhelmed by the economic crisis. Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic undertook a hegemonic project, which Slovenos and Croatas responded with the declaration of independence.

From 1991 to 1995, war and “ethnic cleaning” (the violent elimination of an ethnic group in a territory) marked the events in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and, especially, Bosnia. The war concluded in 1995 with the Dayton agreements and the entrance to the Territor of NATO troops (which were replaced in 2004 by military forces of the European Union).

To integrate the countries released from the communist regime, the European Union had two extensions in 2004. They were integrated:

Three former Soviet republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania),
four ancient satellites of the USSR (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia),
an old Yugoslava republic (Slovenia),
Two Mediterranean Islands (Cyprus and Malta)

21st century in the United States: the great superpower

During his government, George W. Bush began the second Gulf War.

With the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, the United States achieved global military hegemony. Since then, he got involved in various military conflicts with the aim of maintaining this hegemony:

Gulf War During the 1990s, President George Bush (father) organized a coalition against Iraq, which had invaded Kuwait and took possession of one of the most important oil reserves in the world. The Iraqi Army of Saddam Huseín was defeated and the United States maintained its political and economic influence on the region.
Afghanistan invasion. In 2001, a few months after the presidency of George W. Bush (son) began, the terrorist attack against the Twin Towers of New York and the Pentagon in Washington took place (known as 11-S, because it happened on September 11, 2001). Since then, the American administration focused on the fight against terrorism. A few months after the attack, North American troops (with help and support from more than 40 countries) invaded Afghanistan and overthrow the Afghan government, accused of sheltering Osama Bin Laden and the leaders to Qaeda (who were responsible for the attack).
Second Gulf War. In 2003, in an enormously controversial action inside and outside the United States, Bush ordered Iraq’s invasion. He denounced that the Iraqi government had developed nuclear weapons and supported Al Qaeda. The American troops ended with the Saddam Huseín regime, which generated political instability and the development of an internal war between the different local power groups. In turn, US companies took control of local oil reserves. The military occupation continued until 2010.

21st century in Russia: authoritarian evolution

Vladimir Putin assumed as president of Russia for the first time in 1999.

After 1991, Borís Yeltsin was in charge of Russia, the main heiress nation of the Soviet Union. In 1993, Yeltsin repressed an attempt with communist blow and undertook, in the midst of a great economic crisis, reforms to achieve a rapid transition to capitalism.

The experience was very hard for Russian society: it is estimated that Two thirds of the Russians saw their standard of living between 1991 and 2001 in half. However, the privatization process in 1993-1996 allowed a minority of entrepreneurs to take over a large part of the country’s natural resources

Between 1994 and 1996, War broke out in Chehenia for Independence. Czech secessionists managed to impose themselves on Russian troops and declare the autonomy of the Republic until, 1999 the Russians invaded the country again and took control of their government.

The poor health and the growing unpopularity led to Yeltsin announced his resignation. Before doing so, The president appointed Vladimir Putin as a successor.

Putin had started his career as an agent of the KGB (the Intelligence Agency of the Soviet Union, called State Security Committee) and then had worked at the agency that happened in Russia, the FSB (for its acronym in Russian, which mean Federal Security Service).

He assumed the presidency with a political administration complicated by internal corruption, the main sectors of the economy controlled by an organized oligarchy and the war against Islamist secessionists in Chechnya. However, the price of oil began its recovery in 2001 and Putin launched a policy back to order and strengthening of central power. For them, he placed in his government Sloviki, (Miembros of the KGB), repressed the oligarchic “mafia”, and pressed the courts of justice to act against multiple cases of corruption.

With these first years of success, he managed to control Russian politics and centralize his authority. Putin’s party, Russia Unida, won elections with antidemocratic methods. Besides, He began controlling the media and television signals, and pressed for the restriction of civil liberties.

21st century in Asia: the rise continent

Jiang Zemin held a communist regime in China but inserted the country into the capitalist world market.

21st century in China

The Government of the Popular Republic of China achieved combine a communist authoritarian regime with a capitalist market economy. During the 1990s, the Jiang Zemin government deepened the policies initiated by Deng Xiapoing in the previous period, oriented to economic liberalization.

Under a communist centralized planning system, some key issues of the economy were released (such as state control within companies), private production and consumption were encouraged and negotiations for the entry of foreign investments began. In 2001, China entered the World Trade Organization, which allowed greater facilities to develop its foreign trade.

21st century in Japan

In the nineties, Japan saw how Its economy entered a period of difficulties and stagnation after almost half a century of continuous growth. The Democratic Liberal Party (PLD), which had lost the country’s government for a short time, returned to power in 1995.

In 2001, a new PLD leader, Junichiro Koizumi, began A wide reform program to liberalize the country’s economy. The strong state intervention model, which for decades had allowed the “Japanese economic miracle”, no longer worked. With the PLD in power, Koizumi was replaced by Shinzo Abe as party leader and country prime minister in 2006.

See also: Japan in the twentieth century

21st century in India

India began the nineties with a series of liberalizing economic reforms that allowed him get out of a long period of economic stagnation. The great promoter of the reforms has been Manmohan Singh, a member of the Congress Party. The objective was to convert the planned economy according to socialist bases into a market economy.

To do this, foreign trade and foreign investment were encouraged. Since then, India is one of the economies in faster growth. However, its population continues to suffer serious problems of poverty, illiteracy, hunger and unemployment.

21st century in Western Asia

Since the end of the 20th century Islamist political movements grew in different countries of Western Asia and in North Africa. Islamists are political movements that argue that the discomfort of societies is due to their departure from Islamic practice. They consider that in order to establish effective government regimes and improve the living conditions of the population, it is necessary to base the political organization with religious practice.

Islamism is a heterogeneous movement and there are different Islamist political groups that differ from their programs and belonging to different interpretations of Islam. However, Most of the Islamist groups considered essential to recover political autonomy regarding Western powersespecially before the United States.

In this context, some Islamist groups emerged that use violence to achieve their objectives such as Al Qaeda, Daesh or Taliban.

21st century in Latin America: the difficulties of democracy

The creation of Mercosur was essential to integrate Latin American economies.

Latin America had lived in the last years of the twentieth century a great process of democratization. The right -wing dictatorships that were imposed in most Latin American countries during the 1970s, had indebted national economies with global financial capital (through IMF loans and other monetary institutions). This situation led to Latin American economies to a serious crisis during the 1980s, which resulted The fall of dictatorships and transition to new constitutional governments.

The governments of the 1990s carried out a neoliberal policy (such as Carlos Salinas de Gortari in Mexico, Fernando de Collor de Mello in Brazil and Carlos Menem in Argentina). In 1991, Mercosur (South Common Market) was created with the aim of establishing guidelines for free trade among signatory countries.

However, the continuous crises generated by neoliberal policies in national economies during the 1990s led to the reorientation of their objectives. We sought to work for the “productive complementarity” and Integrate national economies in a regional manner.

As this orientation weakened its interests in the region, the United States sought to co -opt the Mercosur countries in a new agreement, called the free trade area of the Americas (Alca). However, due to continuous crises and social discomfort, in Latin American countries The political parties that rejected neoliberalism and preached the economic transformation towards necete development grew (Promotion of industrialization and employment). Consequently, the resistance of national bourgeoisies (especially Brazil and Argentina) managed to definitely reject the Alca and defend regional interests.

You may be interested: History of the European Union

See also: Latin America in the twentieth century

Africa: permanent instability

The history of the last decades of the twentieth century of African countries was marked by political instability and continuous economic crises. Since African states obtained their independence from colonial metropolis (1950 and 1960), the continent was crossed by various conflicts. In principle, The national borders that were inherited from the colonial empires were not compatible with the cultural identities of its inhabitants (ethnic, tribal or religious).

In addition, the foreign economic interests of the European and North American powers (specifically linked to the exploitation and extraction of natural resources) continued to influence and intervene in the weak local democracies. To this was added that, with the end of the cold war, The growing globalization reduced most of the African countries to the category of “underdeveloped” or “dependent.”

In this context, civil wars were unleashed throughout the continent that caused secessions and annexations of territories, the establishment of totalitarian dictatorships and large massacres. The African population suffered poverty, famines and violence.

Among the most important conflicts on the continent, they can be distinguished:

Darfur’s conflict in Sudan. The western region of Darfur is mostly populated by Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit villages, Muslim black villages that are predominantly dedicated to agriculture. As of the 1980s, the region suffered a terrible drought. Conflicts with the Arab minority peoples of the area, the Yanyauid, were generalized in 1993. Since then, it is estimated that deaths from violence reach more than 400,000 victims.
Civil War in Congo. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is formed by two hundred ethnic groups grouped in differentiated areas and with different languages. In 1996, Militias Hutus (authors of the Tutsis genocide in 1994 in Rwanda) fled the Ruandés Tutsi government and settled in the Congo. The Ruandeses troops entered the country supporting Congolese militias grouped in the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the liberation of Congo, led by Laurente Kabila. This guerrillas managed to evict the Mobutu dictator in Kinshasa. From there, Congo has started a complex war in which various ethnic groups faced and in which troops of Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia were intervened. It is estimated that between 1996 and 2005 the conflict has caused almost four million dead for murders, torture, hunger and disease.

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References

Ackermann, Me (2008). “Bush, George W.”, “European Union”, “Latin American Politics”, “Latin American Social Issues”, “Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)”, “Russian Federation”, “Third World/Global South”. Encyclopedia of World History. The contemporary world: 1950 to the present. New York.
Shillington, K. (ed.). (2013). “Congo (Kinshasa), Democratic Republic of/Zaire: Evolués, Politics, Independence”, “Coups d’Etat and Military Rule: postcolonial Africa”, “Sudan: Civil War: 1990s”. Encyclopedia of African History. Routledge.
Martel, G. (ed.). (2014). “Terrorism: War Against.” Twentieth-Century War and Conflict: A Concise Encyclopedia. Wiley Blackwell.