The end of the Cold War through the prism of a liberal and conservative approach

Abstract

More than thirty years have passed since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but there is still debate about why this happened. With the emergence of new states in the post-Soviet space, a geopolitical vacuum was created, which the great powers tried to fill and establish their influence in the region. Undoubtedly, the collapse of the USSR did not pass without a trace and today we have a new round of regional conflicts in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia. The socialist curtain has been replaced by the era of neoliberal capitalism, providing an impetus for many researchers and policymakers to analyse the historical developments in the post-Soviet region. The article analyses the main works of liberals, realist conservatives, and neo-Marxists who have tried to assess the events that preceded the collapse of the Soviet Union.