The Threat of Nuclear War since the Cold War I partly agree and disagree with the above statement. Nuclear war was at the height of the Cold War, and while it has eased somewhat since the end, it has not yet completely disappeared. The nuclear threat is different now than it was in the twentieth century, to demonstrate my points I will talk about the Cold War in reference to the nuclear threat and what it means today. At the end of World War II, the world was devastated, Germany was finally defeated, and a new superpower emerged: the United States of America. To examine the threats of nuclear war in the Cold War I must first look at the causes of the Cold War, this will help me analytically later. The real rivalry was developing in the aftermath of World War II between the United States and the Soviet Union. But these two countries were a world apart; the United States was a democracy while the USSR was ruled by communism – two very different faiths. Russians had almost no freedom, while Americans enjoyed freedom in virtually all aspects of life. Another major difference between these two countries that played a major role in the Cold War was the economy. The USA was a capitalist country and therefore much richer, while the USSR had a communist economy where all control belonged to the government. The Russians feared the Americans and the Americans feared the Russians: huge contrasts. All this fear certainly drove both countries to produce nuclear weapons and was a major factor in actually initiating the nuclear threat. The Soviets felt they needed secure borders, so they decide to put all of Eastern Europe (with... middle of paper...). ....the final community (specifically the United States) is North Korea. North Korea showed hostility by withdrawing from the NPT and starting to produce atomic weapons. It started doing this in the last decade and this made the US very angry, which labeled them as part of the "axis of evil" treaty. does not pose much of a threat, but could do so in the very near future. In conclusion, I think the nuclear threat has diminished (only slightly) since the end of the Cold War, although it still exists in a different way than nuclear power in the twentieth century. The threat today is more secret and in the hands of terrorists, while the nuclear threat in the Cold War was more in the public eye and in the hands of independent and responsible states. The threat of nuclear war is still here but has receded shortly after 1991 but has not yet completely disappeared.