For instance the Berlin Crisis, the Korean War and Cuban Missile crisis. This demonstrates the instability of the peer odd. During this period the tensions between the superpowers increased and decreased a result of factors such as the balance of military power and better relations they create De with each other. So although the superpower relations had been destabilize by the end o f the period, through the period there was not always growing tensions. Firstly between the period 1949 and 1953 the balance of military power between the superpowers brought a sense of stability.
An example how the balance of military pop were stabilized a situation is the Berlin crisis of 1948 1949. As the Soviet’s knew that they were capable of being able to invade western Berlin and capturing it but they also knew the at if they did this threat of nuclear attack from the US would be inevitable as they had sent 829 bombers to the UK which were capable of reaching the soviet sector. This therefore meant that Stalin did not take action against the Western Sector because he did not want nu clear retaliation, showing when balance of power occurred it was stabilizing.
Another exam pale of how the balance of military power can be stabilizing is the testing of the Soviets first atomic bomb in 1949, this was stabilizing at the time because of the Korean War was taking place and it brought nuclear balance of terror between the superpowers. Nuclear balance AT terror meant that the USA no longer had the upper hand over the Soviets so they could no I anger use it as a threat which mean they had to avoid direct conflict by acting through the United Nations as they feared a nuclear attack.
Also another example of how they avoided did erect inflict, is the Soviet decision to sponsor the North Korean and Chinese forces, so that t the USA and USSR avoided war. This shows that the nuclear threat enables stability as boo the wanted to avoid direct conflict because they knew that direct conflict and policies coo old escalate leading too nuclear attack which both sides wanted to avoid. Another factor that allowed for stabilized relations between the superpowers was ho w the nuclear arms race encouraged the establishment of better relations between the pop were in the period 1953 1955.
The Use’s Mike tests of November 1952 resulted in a megaton explosion, 1000 times that of the explosion of Hiroshima, producing a fireball 5. 23 kilo meters wide and a mushroom cloud that rose to 41 ,OHO meters in three minutes. Again, the S Viet Union was determined to keep up with US technology and it produced its own H bomb within a year. The Soviet testing took place in Astrakhan on 12th August 1953. The Soviet U onion exploded a 400 kiloton device known as Joe 4. The test of Andrei Sharron Third Idea in November 1955 demonstrated that the Soviet Union had developed a bomb as power full as the US H bombs.
However unlike the US the USSR success meant a huge cost to its economy, the US did not struggle in the same way as the USSR did to keep up in the A arms race because significantly smaller economy. As result of this the new soviet leadership p lead by Maleness and Khrushchev, understood that they need to seek ‘peaceful coexistence e’ with the US in order to reduce tensions so that the military spending that was need to eke p up with the US could be decreased. The new policy meant the end of hostilities in Korea and the re unification of Austria in 1955. Without question this shows that the nuclear arms race led to
