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O-Level Paper 2: How the Cold War drew to a close

What the O-Level syllabus expects for Paper 2: How the Cold War drew to a close, and how to practise it.

What the syllabus expects

A survey of the swinging spells of easing and mounting friction between the Americans and Soviets over the 1960s and 1970s
The Soviet Union's slide and the closing of the Cold War
Scope: A Soviet command economy that worked poorly, its structural flaws dragging down how people lived; the external drains the USSR carried, such as climbing military outlays, hardening pushback across the communist bloc and Warsaw Pact obligations; sharper friction with the Americans through the 1980s as US economic strength restarted the race to arm; and what Gorbachev's economic and political overhauls did, failing to revive the economy, draining faith in the Soviet leadership, toppling the bloc in Eastern Europe and breaking the USSR apart
Weigh what drove the Soviet Union into decline
Weigh what brought the Cold War to its end
Key concepts: Perestroika, Bipolarity, Détente, Cold War, Arms Race, Diplomacy, Command economy, Communism, Capitalist economy, Democracy, Glasnost, Reform