# Cold War
Status: public
Confidence: high (0.89) (verified)
Last verified: 2026-05-28
Generation: ai_structured


## TL;DR

The Cold War was a long geopolitical rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II. This repaired entry keeps the public claims tied to Britannica, Gaddis, and Westad rather than unsupported future-edition metadata.

## Core Explanation

The conflict combined ideological competition, nuclear deterrence, alliance systems, proxy wars, and political crises. Westad's work is used here for the global dimension because many Cold War conflicts unfolded outside Europe and North America.

## Further Reading

- [Britannica: Cold War](https://www.britannica.com/event/Cold-War)
- [John Lewis Gaddis: The Cold War](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/256540/the-cold-war-by-john-lewis-gaddis/)
- [The Global Cold War](https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511817991)

## Related Articles

- [World War II Overview](../world-war-ii-overview.md)
- [Space Race](../space-race.md)