The Cold War was a geopolitical concept describing the open yet restricted rivalry that developed between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies after World War II. The term was first used by writer George Orwell in an article published in 1945 to refer to a predicted nuclear stalemate between "super-states". The conflict originated after the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, when the uneasy wartime alliance between the US/Great Britain and the Soviet Union began to unravel due to fundamental ideological and geopolitical differences. The problem it addressed was the post-war power vacuum and the clash between the US-led capitalist Western Bloc and the Soviet-led communist Eastern Bloc.
The mechanism of the Cold War was characterized by a lack of direct military engagement between the two superpowers, which is why it was "cold". Instead, it was waged through political, economic, and propaganda fronts, as well as an aggressive and costly arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons. Key mechanisms included the policy of containment adopted by the US in 1947 to prevent the spread of communism, and the use of proxy wars in regions like Korea and Vietnam, where each superpower supported opposing sides. The doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), based on the knowledge that a nuclear attack by one side would result in the annihilation of both, helped prevent the conflict from turning "hot".
The Cold War connects to several related institutions and concepts, most notably the military alliances: the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), formed by the US and its allies in 1949, and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact of 1955. For an Indian reader, the concept of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is crucial, as India, under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was a leading country that chose not to align with either bloc, seeking to maintain its independence in foreign policy. The conflict ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The core mechanism of bipolar global rivalry was replaced by a unipolar or multipolar world order, but the alliances like NATO have stayed, and the concept of proxy conflicts and ideological competition remains relevant in contemporary international relations.