A new configuration of power emerged in world politics after the end of the cold war. Analyse how USA managed to become the sole superpower.

Answer:

The end of the Cold War around 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, left the United States as the world's sole superpower, and its unrivalled position rested on a rare combination of overwhelming military, economic, technological and ideological strength in a world that had suddenly become unipolar.

The collapse of the rival

• The disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 removed the only true counterweight to American power.
• The Warsaw Pact dissolved and communism collapsed right across Eastern Europe.
• The bipolar order of the Cold War gave way to a unipolar one dominated by the United States.

The foundations of American primacy

• The United States possessed unmatched military power, with a global network of bases and alliances.
• It had the world's largest economy and led the major international financial institutions.
• It commanded a decisive lead in technology, information and innovation.
• Its liberal-democratic and capitalist model enjoyed wide appeal in the 'end of history' mood.

Assertion of the sole superpower

• It led the Gulf War of 1991, demonstrating its military dominance and coalition leadership.
• It shaped globalisation and the post-Cold War order through the institutions it dominated.
• Interventions in the Balkans showed its willingness to act as global arbiter.
• Its cultural influence, or 'soft power', carried American values across the world.

The new configuration of power

• Power became unipolar in military terms but increasingly multipolar in economics.
• NATO expanded eastward while former Soviet republics reoriented westward.
• Globalisation, liberalisation and the spread of democracy marked the new order.
• Non-state actors and transnational issues began to reshape world politics.

Limits of the unipolar moment

• Fukuyama's 'end of history' optimism was soon tempered by new conflicts.
• The rise of China, a resurgent Russia and the European Union began to erode the imbalance.
• The attacks of 11 September 2001 and the wars that followed strained American power.
• Analysts increasingly speak of a multipolar or non-polar world emerging.

How the Cold War was won

• Sustained containment and the arms race imposed unbearable strain on the Soviet economy.
• Reagan's military build-up and the Strategic Defence Initiative raised the costs further.
• Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika unintentionally hastened the Soviet collapse.
• The command economy could not match Western technological and consumer dynamism.
• Nationalist movements within the Soviet republics dissolved the union from within.
• American victory was thus as much economic and ideological as military.

The United States thus became the sole superpower because the collapse of its rival left it supreme across every dimension of power, military, economic, technological and ideological alike. As analysts note, this unipolar moment gave America an unprecedented primacy in world affairs, though the rise of new centres of power and the costs of global engagement have since begun to erode it, pointing towards a more multipolar order.