La nova historiografia de la guerra freda

Abstract

A simplistic view of historiography has tended to show the Cold War as a confrontation between «good» and «bad» in the style of a Western. However, a new historiography of the Cold War is emerging that seeks to explain things differently, although its scope is still relatively limited. The most interesting part of what it bring mostly concerns the nature of this war, looking for its internal logic from the combination of political and economic factors behind it, to better understand their persistence. The history of over sixty years should be considered in terms of political causes that are much more complex than the clash between East and West, between really existing socialism and devious democracy. The Cold War accomplished, in the internal structures of the two opposing sides, the essential function of maintaining social order and controlling dissent. To explain the relationship between the Cold War and the maintenance of the current capitalist economic system will force us to look very carefully to a past that contains many of the keys to the disturbing situation in which we live today.