Discomfort and chaos are the handmaidens of change, and while change ultimately brings endless opportunities for new beginnings, the end of the Cold War and the end of the two-bloc system do not they heralded the creation of a more stable and balanced world order as hypothesized by many political commentators. This essay will critically analyze the extent to which the post-Cold War world order has become more stable and balanced, illustrating the instability and conflict that erupted with the fall of the Soviet empire, and how the end of the Cold War removed the blanket of stability, not only in the Central European and Balkan regions, but also in the rest of the world. Second, it will briefly examine how the West, primarily the United States, has assumed the balance of power, including the United States' aggressive use of NATO in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the of the borders of Soviet influence. of the Cold War: In the Shadow of a Titan The nature of the Cold War and the threatening potential of its degeneration into a direct armed conflict between East and West created a quasi-equilibrium that, while not entirely containing regional conflicts minors, he managed to manage to prevent large-scale hostilities from erupting. There were several difficult moments during the decades that the Cold War raged, including conflicts, crises, and proxy wars, but ultimately mutual deterrence and the possibility of a nuclear exchange between the superpowers kept the Cold War from becoming hot . During the Cold War, Communist threats of intimidation and proscribed loyalty under Stalin failed, and that failure saw the collapse of several stabilizing Soviet legacies, including institutional, m...... middle of paper ...... university, Fairfax, VA, 2008.Cox, J. 'No, No, NATO'. Published by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. 1982, pp. 23 Kaldor, M. 'Beyond the Blocs: Defending Europe Politically'. World politics. vol. 1, no. 1. 1983. pp 21.US Anti-Missile Systems in Europe Threatens Russia — General, MoscNews, 9 February 2007. URL consulted on 16 October 2011< http://infowars.net/articles/february2007/090207Anti-Missile .htm> BBC World News. "Russia warns against nuclear defense." 19 January 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2011 Mearsheimer, J. “Why We Will Soon Lose the Cold War.” Atlantic Monthly Online. August 1990. Retrieved October 18, 2011 Cox, M. "The Cold War as a System." June 2011. URL consulted on 17 October 2011 < http://libcom.org/history/cold-war-system-michael-cox?quicktabs_1=1>iBid