The Ideological Battlefield: Unraveling the Genesis and Escalation of the Cold War
While my long-term intention for this page is to showcase my independent research papers— created outside of class assignments—I am starting out with a paper that originated from the History 375 class at UW-Madison. This course, taught by Alfred W. McCoy on the complexities of the Cold War significantly influenced my historical perspectives and approach to historical research and analysis.
Within this paper, I delve into the origins of the Cold War, examining the post-World War II conditions that prompted a permanent shift in US foreign policy from its isolationist tradition towards interventionism. I identify the two primary catalysts of the Cold War as the global order’s abrupt upheaval and the ideological clash between Marxism-Leninism and American Liberalism, embodied by the USSR and the US.
Had this paper not stemmed from a school assignment with a ten-page limit (which, I, admittedly, extended to fifteen pages), its analysis would have been more comprehensive. I particularly would have liked to further explore the structures through which Marxism-Leninism and American Liberalism pushed the two nations to desire differing global hegemonic orders. Unfortunately, I ended up having to cut approximately thirty pages of my initial analysis.
Nevertheless, through this initial contribution to Horn’s History, I aim to establish the tone for my future, more extensive explorations and discussions of various historical topics.
Horn's History 