Was the Cold War an Identity Conflict?

Was the Cold War an Identity Conflict? The Cold War was a controversial war. Unlike previous wars the main actors never really frontally fought each other. By using client states to fight on their behalf, the USA and Soviet Union fought for their beliefs and identities. [1]Identity in IR can be associated with nationalism, and that is one of the reasons that the Cold War is seen as an identity conflict. The Cold War was in fact an opposition of different cultural, political, power and ideological identities.[2]This essay tries to clarify the semantics of the word identity, when this word started to have importance between the scholars an[3]d in particular why it is so important in order to understand better International Relations.[4] In this essay the main protagonists and events related to the Cold War will also be reviewed. After this important context is explained, the role of identities in the Cold War will be examined and described. By using some examples it should be clear why the Cold War was in fact an identity c onflict. What is Identity? To understand the role of identities in the Cold War it is first necessary to understand what identity really means, in particular related to IR. Defining identity is not easy and if we look at the word in the Cambridge Dictionary we find this definition: who a person is, or the qualities of a person or group that make them different from others [1]. But as James D. Fearon relates in his manuscript [2] dictionary definitions fail to capture the meaning of identity in every day and social science contexts.According to many scholars, identities play a central role in politics. Anthony Burke, for example, affirms that there would be no world politics, no people, no states and no international system without identity[3]. Before extending to groups such states or the international system[5] it is important to remember how the concept of identity starts from the individual. It is said that identity is what we make of it. Culture, education, family environment, media and many other factors shape every persons identity. Another aspect that should be pointed out is that rarely is identity forever fixed, and in fact identities can change throughout places and time. Relationships, for example, are a powerful factor able to change ones identity. Personal and national identities have a close connection as both mutually influence each other. A persons identity is influenced by the national identity of the country he/she was born in, and at the same time national identity is formed by putting together the single peoples identities of its inhabitants. [6]But as Jervis Robert asks: Can we treat national identity as singular in the face of internal differences? [4]. That is the reason why understanding the individuals identity and how they develop is important to understand how a group of identities work. We can refer to many aspects as identity. Identity in IR can often be related to nationalism, and this will be explained better later on. If we refer to cultural identity it is necessary to remember Huntingtons theory about the Clash of Civilisations [5]He argued that modern conflicts would happen mainly because of conflicts between civilisations. Regarding civilisations as cultural identities is evidence of how Huntingtons theory also applies to this case. Brief summary of the Cold War Besides clarifying the definition of identity, it is also important to understand the reasons for and the protagonists involved in the Cold War. As is well known, the Cold War happened mainly because of the tension between the two opposing superpowers, the USA in the West and the Soviet Union in the East. The Soviet Union was a communist system where, based around a central ideology, everyone owned the means to create a Commonwealth[7] while the United States was a capitalist system where almost everything was privately owned and run for profit. These two powers never really frontally fought against each other, instead, after World War II they started spreading their influence through the world and fighting each other using proxy wars, intimidation, propaganda and espionage. The Soviet Union and the United States spread their influence in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia, trying to overthrow the old European colonial regime. Nationalism and identity As human beings we are considered to be social beings and for this reason we feel the desire or the necessity of belonging to a community. As explained before, an identity is something that belongs to a person and it is indivisible. Everyone has his/her own identity but everyone as human being has the need for belonging to a greater community or identity. Extending this fact to a national view we can understand how nationalisms are born. The pride of belonging to a nation and the desire to make ones own country the greatest is a way of making yourself belong to a national identity, making your identity complete by being part of a greater identity. In western counties, in particular in the US, the idea that ones own country was better than other was common. And although Karl Marx believed that nationalism was something to avoid, communist countries, such as China and the Soviet Union, were strongly nationalist as well. Nationalisms and wars are often connected to each other or even though necessary for the existence of the other. [8]The pride of ones own culture and identity that comes with nationalism can cause people to believe that their own country is always right and keeps motivated people to make sacrifices for their own country and be willing to fight for it. We build our identity by excluding characteristics we dont like. If we extend this concept to IR we can see how identities had a major role in the Cold War. Soviet identity, as an example, was shaped in opposition to the capitalist world as well, as Americans were constantly afraid of the spread of Communism (the Red Scare[6]). Americans believed that democratic ideology was the best , and that by globally spreading their ideologies they would assist the world to modernise and improve it. Communists from the Soviet Union had the same feelings about communism. By thinking like this it was inevitable that the two super powers would be pitted against each other. Geopolitical divisions = clash of identities During the Cold War the clash of identities was physically and geopolitically visible. Germany, Vietnam and Korea are clear examples of how there was a clear division and conflict between the two super powers identities. During the Vietnam War, the contrast between the two political and ideological identities was clear. South Vietnam was anti-communist and for this reason it was supplied by the US, while North Vietnam was pro-Communist and by using weapons from the USSR and China they fought against the south and against the US. The same scenario occurred in Korea and Germany,[9] in this last one by creating the material and physical division of the wall.This clash of identities was sometimes also immaterial[10]. An example of this is the Red Fear that was spreading in the US during the war. The fear of the other and the fear of the contagion of unwanted ideologies, in this case, communism was a daily reality in the US during the Cold War. This fear was extended outside US borders By this point it should be clear that the Cold War was an attempt of preservation of national identities. The curious thing after all was said, as Jervis Robert 4 debates, is that the Soviet Union and the US had in fact a lot of similarities or parallels. As he ascertains, both implied a form of universalism and both were founded on ideas instead of nationalities or myths of common heritage or blood. Robert testifies that in a country where mostly everyone was an immigrant,[11] like the United States, it was possible to not be considered an American just by not believing in the correct ideas[12]. Another aspect that they[13] had in common was that both believed they were the standard to be followed in order to obtain global progress and modernity. How the Cold War ended The way the Cold War ended is another clear example of the importance that identities had in this war. In fact, the Cold War ended only when one of the two sides identities ended as well. As this war was happening mainly because of the contrast of the two main identities, when one of them failed there was no more reason for conflict to exist. CONCLUSION To summarise, it has been noted that conflicts of identities, if extended to an international level, had a major role in the Cold War. This particular war cannot be explained by classic IR. Just by analysing the role of identities in the global system this particular war can be understood properly. As was explained, identity can assume many different forms (political, ideological, cultural), and it is clear now how preservation and spread of identities were the two main reasons that for the Cold War. The two main ideologies of capitalism and communism started from the United States and the Soviet Union but rapidly spread globally creating internal conflicts in countries such as Vietnam, Korea and Germany. These clear distinctions and divisions, the development of the War and finally the way the Cold War ended make indisputable the fact that the Cold War was an identity conflict. BIBLIOGRAPHY Adler-Nissen, R. Stigma Management in International Relations: Transgressive Identities, Norms and Order in International Society, International Organisation 68/1 (2014): 143-176 Berenskoetter, F. Identity in International Relations in R. Denemark (ed.), The International Studies Encyclopedia (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010): 3594-3611 Burke, Anthony. Identity/Difference. In M. Griffiths (ed.) Encyclopedia of International Relations and Global Politics. London: Routledge, 2006: pp.394-6 Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary Thesaurus  © Cambridge University Press s.v. Identity http://www.dictionary.cambridge.org/dictioà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦/english/identity Fearon, J. What is Identity (as We Now Use the Word)?, unpublished manuscript (Stanford University, 1999) Jervis Robert. Identity and the Cold War. Cambridge University Press, 2010: pp.22-43 Samuel P. Huntington 1996, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Touchstone Books. Zachary Keck 2013, How Geopolitics Doomed the Clash of Civilizations, The Diplomat, . Individual, transnational(means in the space between) identity Dignity and Privacy in Health Care: Literature Review Dignity and Privacy in Health Care: Literature Review Annotated Bibliography To complete this assignment I am going to complete an Annotated Bibliography. An annotated bibliography is a bibliography of sources of information such as: books, websites, journals, articles. However under each source is an evaluation paragraph that is a brief description about the source that has been used. During this assignment the sources used will be based upon on the subject of privacy and dignity, and overall 15 sources will be used including one national policy. Finally the evaluation paragraph of each source will focus on a few points: 1) what the main points of the source are. 2) Are the main points of the source clearly presented to the reader? 3) Who is the source directed at- who is the audience? 4)Is the information in the source supported by someone or is the source unsupported. Alaszewski, H, Holdsworth, L,Billings, J, Dr Wagg (2009) ‘Privacy and dignity in continence care: research review Nursing Residential Care. 11 (8) pp 393-396. http://internurse.com [Accessed 5th December 2009] This article is written by three health professionals who specialise in research two of whom are research associates and one who is a researcher and one health professional who is a senior lecturer at a university. Therefore due to the nature of the authors the article is primarily based to health professionals. More specifically as it was published in Nursing and Residential care the health care professionals who work in nursing and residential homes. The layout of this article is very simple and the information is presented clearly with the use of subheadings to describe the different parts of the study. This article reviews a study that was carried out in relation to privacy and dignity in continence care. This review highlights that there four major themes identified from the study one of them being privacy. With the review commenting that maintaining privacy during toileting and continence care is vital to maintaing dignity. In addition that it was easier to maintain privacy in care homes that provided en-suite bathrooms for the residents. This article is not supported as it only gives reference to what the Health Care commission report caring for dignity says about dignity. Foss, T D (2006) ‘Grave Bearing: how dignity will be dealt with on wards. British Journal of Nursing. 15 (9) pp 481 http://www.internurse.com [Accessed 5th December 2009] This article is written by the editor of the British Journal of Nursing and bases the article around the new duty that the government has imposed on nurses, the new duty of the Dignity nurse. In the article the author argues that nurses simply have too many duties and adding another will make the nurses even more overstretched. In addition it is pointed out that nurses already show the patients respect and dignity in basic care as nurses play an important role in keeping up dignity in mixed wards, so why does it need to be actually stated as a new duty. The article concludes with the view that the government cannot deal with this with continuing learning courses as the nurses do not have the time nor do the trust have the money to send the nurses on them. As this article is published in the British Journal of Nursing and written by the editor of the journal this article is aimed at Health Care professionals especially who work on wards. As no reference is made to anyone else or any o ther publications this article is unsupported. McParland J, Scott, PA, Dassen, T ,Gasull, M, Lemonidou, C, Valimaki, M , Leino-Kilpi, H ( 2000) ‘ Atonomy and clinical practice 2: patient privacy and nursing practice. British Journal of Nursing. 9 (9) pp 556-559. http://www.internurse.com [Accessed 5th December 2009] This article is written by a number of health lecturers and outlines privacy and the nursing practices to enable the policy of privacy is adhered to. The article is presented clearly with an abstract box at the beginning of the article to inform the reader what information the article is going to contain, and all the information under sub headings. The article begins with a number of definitions of privacy and then informs the reader of patient privacy. A number of situations and examples of patient privacy are given in the article with it also stating how nurses can maintain patient privacy. This article is primarily aimed at the nursing profession as it was published in the British Journal of Nursing. This article may be extremely useful to student nurses to enable them to learn about privacy to maintain a good understanding of it and how to make sure it is maintained why they are on placement. Throughout this article many references are made to many people who have researched this area before, therefore this article is supported. Charles- Edward, I, Brotchie, J (2005) ‘Privacy: what does it mean for childrens nurses? Paediatric Nursing. 17 ( 5) pp 38-44. http://www.proquest.com [Accessed 6th December 2009] Although this article is appropriate for paediatric health professionals due to where it was published and the authors. Imelda Charles- Edward being the programme director for the Bsc (Hons) in child health nursing and it being published in the Paediatric Nursing journal, it is most appropriate for Paediatric Nursing students. The main reason for this being that includes a number of activates that could be completed in order to gain a good understanding of the subject of privacy and dignity while undertaking training. Due to this being aimed at paediatric nursing students the layout is very clear as it includes tables and is sectioned off with what the author calls ‘Time outs at the end of each section for the reader to complete. This article covers many issues to do with privacy and dignity including: the different definitions of privacy, physical privacy, privacy of information and adult secretes. Throughout the article the author makes reference to many other health professi onals and authors who have their own views on this subject and who have carried out studies on the subject previous, therefore this article is supported. Matiti, M R, Trorey, G M ( 2008) ‘Patients expectations of the maintenance of their dignity Journal of clinical nursing. 17 (20) pp 2709- 2971. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com [Accessed 6th December 2009] This study was carried out to research into patients expectations of dignity while they were in hospital and how it was maintained. Due to both the authors being health lectures at universities in England and the article being printed in a nursing journal this article is aimed at any health professional who works in a hospital setting as this is where the study was carried out. The information about the study is clearly presented in this article as the information is divided into the different sections of the study. For example the article provides information background to dignity, information on the methodology of the study, the study population, data collection and information on the findings of the study. As this is a study that was conducted it is not supported in the traditional sense as it only makes reference to what other people perceive privacy and dignity to be. Nazarko, L, (2007) ‘Bathing Patients with care and dignity. British Journal of Health Care Assistants. 1 (2) pp 73-76. http://www.internurse.com [Accessed 6th December 2009] An abstract box at the beginning of this article informs the reader that healthcare assistants play an important role in maintaining the hygiene of clients in their care and this role should be carried out with sensitivity to maintain the clients dignity. The article comments on this in more depth informing the reader that one of the main ways of respecting the clients dignity is to assess the risk of the client of getting in the bath/shower as if they can complete the task themselves then they should be left to do so. This article was written by a nursing consultant for older people and was published in the British Journal of Healthcare Assistants; therefore it is aimed more specifically at Healthcare Assistants. Nursing students however may find this useful as the article is simply written and explains what needs to be done to bath a client, therefore a student nurse may find it useful to use to find out how to bath a patient. As the article is like a guide to bathing clients no re ference is made to any other publications therefore this article is unsupported. Thomas, S, (2008) ‘RCN: Lets get political for patient dignity. British Journal of Neuroscience Nursing. 4 (5) pp 243-244. http://www.internurse.com [Accessed 6th December 2009] The author of this article Sue Thomas a nurse policy adviser for the Royal College of Nursing writes this article to inform health professionals about the barriers that face nurses when trying to make policy changes and how maintaining patient dignity can bring about policy change. The information is clearly presented with sub headings and quotations being easily distinguished by being in bold. The article highlights the barriers to dignity such as the obstacles that stop the nurses providing the dignity that the patients want. The article then provides recommendations that the RCN would like to see in place in order for the nurses to provide the dignity the patients want such as: no more mixed wards and curtains around beds that actually close. Although this was published in the neuroscience journal this article is aimed at all health professionals especially them in the Royal college of Nursing. Throughout this article there are many quotations by health professionals and results o f a survey carried out therefore this article is supported. Pownall, M, ( 2009) ‘Privacy and dignity: eliminating mixed sex accommodation in hospitals. Nursing Times. 105 (44) pp 15. http://www.proquest.com [Accessed 6th December 2009] This article is written by a freelance health journalist who uses the issue of mixed sex wards as an example of how individual trusts can monitor how they are maintaining privacy and dignity in relation to overall performance. The author states that this is achieved in three ways: 1) A committed board of directors e.g. providing the senior management with the right information and recourses to ensure privacy and dignity is maintained to patients in their care. 2) The care environment e.g. separated sleeping areas and washing facilities for men and women on mixed sex wards. 3) Individual action e.g. if it is unavoidable for a patient to be placed on a mixed ward try to relocate the patient as soon as possible and apologise for any inconvenience. The article is clearly presented and uses sub-headings to categorise the information. As it is printed in a nursing journal nurses and health care professionals may find this article beneficial. Walsh, K, Kowanko, I (2002) ‘Nurses and patients perceptions of dignity International Journal of Nursing. 8 (3) pp143-145. http://www3.interscience.com [Accessed 7th December 2009] The authors of this article, one being a senior lecturer and another being a senior researcher explains in depth the study and the results of the study they carried out in order to obtain nurses and patients perceptions of dignity. This article highlights that after carrying out the study nurses believe that there are many aspects and many different characteristics of dignity, the most important ones being aspects such as privacy and respect. With the study also concluding that the characteristics the patients associated with dignity were very similar to the nurses. Although the article is of length it is clearly presented with the use of sub-headings and the use of quotations in italics. As the authors have used quotations of the participants in the study and have related to other health professionals during this study this article is supported. As it was published in the International Journal of Nursing this article is not only aimed at audiences here in the United Kingdom but heal th professionals all over the world. Ashurst, A (2007) ‘Palliative Care: maintaining dignity. Nursing and residential care. 9 (1) pp22-24. http://www.internurse.com [Accessed 7th December 2009] This article has been specifically written for palliative care staff in nursing or residential care specifically for the care of the elderly and terminally ill. The author- a consultant editor for the journal highlights guidelines to follow to ensure dignity is maintained for the care of the terminally ill during their stay at residential homes. Ashurst sates to maintain privacy and dignity towards the end of the patients life emotional support must be obtainable which may include respecting the relatives wishes- this may include involving themselves in the care of their relative. He also sates that respect for the patients wishes should be at the forefront of the care for the patient regardless of what the nursing staff believes to be the best course of treatment. Ashurst clearly presents the main points of this article to the reader by using a simple layout with the uses of sub-headings, pictures, columns and quotations in bold and inverted comers. As this is not legislation but me rely guidelines it is not supported in the traditional sense as the author only uses the opinions of members of the health profession. NHS Executive- Safety, Privacy and dignity in mental health units- guidance on mixed sex accommodation for mental health services. (2000). http://www.dh.gov.uk [Accessed 9th December 2009] This policy is a National Health Service policy for all NHS trusts in England written by the NHS Executives. It provides guidance for the practical steps that need to be taken out by all NHS staff to ensure that safety, privacy and dignity are maintained for the patients in mental heath units with regards to mixed sex accommodation. It is split into two main sections. Section A being operation policy. This provides the audience with guidelines to meet the overall objects of providing a safe environment and safe facilities for mentally ill patients which maintain their privacy and dignity. Section B being design guidance. This section elaborates on the guidelines given in the previous section by specifically relating it to mental health facilities. As this is a NHS policy and is therefore legislation it is not supported as it is not a matter of opinion. Although this policy is long in length it is clearly presented with the use of sections and sub-sections being clearly numbered. The policy also includes models as aguidance to possible accommodation arrangements for new/existing accommodation in order to maintain privacy and dignity in mental health facilities. Professor Ian Philip, National Director for old people, Department of health- A new ambition for old age- next steps in implementing the national service framework for older people. (2006) http://www.dh.gov.uk [Accessed on 9th December 2009] This report written by the national director for old people outlines the next steps for implementing the national service framework for older people and follows on from a previous report on ‘Better Health in old age. The author states that it is the department of healths ambition that within five years all older people will be treated with respect and dignity and in all care settings. He believes this will be achieved by following 10 programmes of activity. An example being: improving dignity in care by strengthen activities such as ensuring the dignity towards and at the end of a persons life. As it is a government policy this report is primarily aimed at everyone in the United Kingdom, however more specifically those who work with older people and those in the health sector. The layout is easy to understand with each programme easy to identify by the use of sub headings in a different colour. Bullet points are also used to keep the text short and direct in some areas with the use of pictures also to brake down the writing.