It is natural to analyze war in terms of victory and defeat, and so it is almost inevitable that the end of the Cold War will be analyzed in these terms. But is the concept of victory and defeat an appropriate analytical framework for understanding the outcome of the Cold War? What state can possibly claim victory in the Cold War—certainly not the former Soviet Union? But can the United States be considered the victor either?

It seems unlikely that either superpower “won” the Cold War when one compares their relative positions in the world prior to the Cold War with their positions afterward. In 1945 the United States had a monopoly on atomic weapons and was virtually invulnerable to attack. By the end of the Cold War both superpowers had massive atomic arsenals and shared equal insecurity under the regime of Mutual Assured Destruction, a situation that left the Soviet Union no better off than before and that clearly marked a decline in American power.

That the Cold War resulted in the relative decline of both superpowers is also clearly discernible when one examines their economic situations. The military competition of the Cold War left the Soviet Union as economically devastated as it was after World War II. The United States came through the Cold War with its economy much more intact, just as was the case after 1945.