CEVAP:

There were many international relations facets to the Cold War.

• The Cold War was a bipolar system that rested on confrontation between two blocs. It was ideologically defined and led by superpowers who possessed extensive nuclear capabilities.
• The leaders on both sides were determined to keep their blocs under control. The policies and common interests were generally designed by the bloc leader. The leaders provided the members of the bloc with few opportunities to follow their own national interests. Moreover, both the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-tion and the Warsaw Pact were hierarchical organizations in which the leaders maintained clear dominance over the members.

• Given their security concerns, the balance of terror pushed the minor members of the blocs into bandwagoning with the bloc leader.

• The United Nations still existed as the primary forum for bloc leaders to cooperate against threats emanating from outside of their spheres of influence or against problems with states outside their bloc.