Examine the economic impact of the Cold War on two countries, each chosen from a different region.

The question requires that candidates consider the interrelationship between the Cold War and the economies of two countries. The two countries must be from different regions. Candidates may refer to economies before the timeframe, but only in order to place change during the Cold War in context. There may be examination of the impact of defence spending in the US, which brought economic boom to some states, and a rise in the budget deficit in the 1980s. Examination of the impact on the Russian economy may focus on the arms race, which may have partly caused the USSR’s collapse. Cold War fears may have influenced the American economic reconstruction of Japan, and the trade embargo on Cuba, which, turned to the USSR for subsidies. Cold War tensions may have prompted Russian investment in the developing world, for example in India and Egypt, and policy towards the economies of the Soviet bloc. Candidates’ opinions or conclusions will be presented clearly and supported by appropriate evidence.

The question required that candidates consider the interrelationship between the Cold War and the economies of two countries. The two countries had to be chosen from different regions. There were some good answers that examined the impact of the military-industrial complex and the space race on the US economy and linked the costs of the arms race and the Afghan War to the decline of the USSR and the end of the Cold War.