1. With the election of Mikhail Gorbachev as the President of USSR in March 1985, there were phenomenal political and social changes in the Soviet Union.
2. Gorbachev committed himself to reforms. In February 1986 he spoke in the Communist Party Congress, explaining the need for political and economic restructuring, or perestroika, and called for a new era of transparency and openness, or glasnost.
3. By Perestroika Gorbachev loosened centralised control of many institutions, allowing businesses, fanners and manufacturers to decide for themselves which products to make,how much to produce; and what te charge for them.

1. Robert Schuman, the French foreign minister, realised that a reconciliationbetween France and Germany was good for both and for reconstruction of post-War Europe.
2. He presented a plan known as Schuman Plan on 9 May 1950.
3. Accordingly, he proposed that the joint output of coal and steel in the two countries be placed within the framework of a strong, supranational structure, the High Authority.
4. This plan for sectoral economic integration created mutual interests and automatically linked the two countries. West Germany's Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, welcomed the plan to come close to the Western world.

1. The Korean War of 1950-53 and the Vietnam Wars of 1955-75 were classic examples of the Cold War period.
2. In both case Soviet Union supported the communist government in North Korea and in North Vietnam and the United States supported South Korea and South Vietnam.
3. These wars resulted in huge casualties and losses, and turned out to be civil wars as well.
4. International opinion was mobilised in these wars, and anti-Vietnam protests made a profound impact on the politics, society and culture of the US and western Europe.

1. The General Assembly at the initiative of US passed the 'Uniting for Peace resolution'.
2. This clearly set the precedent that if the Security Council could not reach an agreement to intervene in a crisis, then the General Assembly should meet in emergency session and reconned the use of armed force if necessary.
3. USSR regarded this resolution as illegal.
4. The fighting ended with the signing of an armistice in July 1953.

In the United States the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was established in 1947 and the Soviet Union's Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (KGB), or 'Committee for National Security' was formed in 1954.

1. SEATO is seen as an Asian-Pacific version of NATO.
2. Interestingly only two south-east Asian countries, the Philippines and Thailand, had taken up membership and the rest of the countries refused to be part of it.
3. The alliance was headquartered at Bangkok. SEATO existed only for consultation, leaving each individual nation to react individually to internal threats. SEATO was not as popular as NATO.
4. With the end of Vietnam War, SEATO was disbanded in 1977.

1. In July 1956, the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal, which was until then privately owned by the Anglo-French Suez Canal Corporation. On 29 October, the Israeli army invaded the Sinai Peninsula.
2. The following day, French and British aircrafts bombed Egyptian air bases.
3. On 5 November 1956, British and French troops landed at the Egyptian town of Port Said.
4. The issue was taken up by the Security Council but Britain and France vetoed the resolution.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)
1. Despite the friendship of the United States, Western European countries It insecure.
2. Communist victory in Czechoslovakia added to their fears.
3. The Western European countries were now willing to consider a collective security solution.
4. The representatives of Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg met in Brussels and signed a treaty in March 1948 which provided for military, political, economic and cultural collaboration.
5. After some time USA, Italy, Canada, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Ireland and Portugal joined the five Brussels Treaty Powers resulting in the formation of NATO. Under NATO, all the member states agreed to regard an attack on any one of them as an attack on all of them and placed their defence forces under a joint NATO Command Organisation.

1. At Dumbarton Oaks, representatives of China, the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom met and formulated proposals for a world organisation.
2. The Moscow declaration recognised the need for an international organisation to replace the League of Nations.
3. Decisions on the voting system in security council and a few other issues were raised in Yalta Conference.
4. After holding deliberations and negotiations at the San Francisco conference, the Charter of the United Nations was finalised.

1. Boris Yeltsin Joining the Communist Party in 1961, Later he became a fulltime worker in the party.
2. He emerged as a popular figure and began to occupy in key positions in the Party.
3. He chose to eliminate corruption in the Moscow party organisation.
4. In 1986 Yeltsin was elevated to the Politburo.
5. Soon he was made the mayor of Moscow.
6. Yeltsin antagonised Gorbachev when he began criticising the slow pace of reform at party meetings.
7. He advocated democratic governance and economic reforms.
8. He succeeded in winning a seat in the USSR Congress of People s Deputies.
9. The Soviet parliament elected him president of the Russian republic against Gorbachev's wishes.
10. He became the first popularly elected leader in 1991, after the collapse of Soviet Union.

1. Respect of fundamental human rights and of the objectives and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
2. Respect for the sovereignty arid territorial integrity of all nations.
3. Recognition of the equality among all races and of the equality among all nations.
4. Non-intervention or non-interference in the internal affairs of another country.
5. Non-use of collective defence pacts to benefit the specific interests of any of the great powers.
6. Non-use of pressures by any country against other countries.
7. Settlement of all international disputes by peaceful means.
8. Promotion of mutual interest and cooperation.
9. Respect for justice and international obligations.