With the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Cold War ended, and the half-century-old bipolar international system disappeared. These were earthshaking events that rightly received and are receiving extensive study and analysis. They occurred for a host of reasons, many of which were related to the internal political, economic, social, and cultural dynamics of communist states. Several of the more important reasons were the resentment of citizens of communist states toward the institutions and individuals that governed them; a resurgence of nationalism within multinational states; the inability of communist states to transition successfully from centralized political, economic, and administrative structures to more decentralized structures; inadequate economic growth rates and declining standards of living; the inability of communist states to diffuse technical advances throughout productive sectors of society; and over-emphasis on defense spending.

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