United States Approaches on National Security and Post Cold War Era

United States Approaches on National Security and Post Cold War Era

The end of the cold war comes after the Reagan administration proclaimed the victory of the cold war as a result of the fall of the Soviet Unions and the similarities between Reagan and Gorbachev in Arms control policies. The cold war era made the Soviet Union and the United States become the two big old scary empires due to their nuclear arms race and the increasing production of dangerous nuclear weapons, atomic energy and missiles. These facts were not the only threats to their national securities, but to both their national and international security. This paper will define and discuss US national security and analyze the relationship between the two nuclear superpowers during the cold war era, whose leaders shifted the history of nuclear power to a new policy of containment of the arms buildup. In addition, this paper will analyze the ongoing negotiations, strategies, and policies used by the administration of both the Soviet Union and the United States, and the events that brought both nuclear superpowers to the negotiating table to end the strategic arms race and end the cold war. This paper is based on the essays of Melvyn Leffler, the book “We Now Know” and the essay of John Lewis Gaddis, the article “Gorbachev Angrily Accuses Reagan Of Scuttling The Accord At Reykjavik.”


When analyzing the national security, one can find the antagonism between two large movements; on the one hand is the support of peace attained through reconciliation and cooperation. This approach favors peaceful negotiation or non violence conflict resolution over using weapons against the opposing party. On the other hand there are those concerned about security being threatened by the ongoing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and raging regional conflicts. This approach advocates using power to restrain the enemy; many times they support the development of an arms race and to increase military power for their defense.  
Leffler’s approach to national...