The world after 1991 is the new international order that emerged once the Cold War ended. The break-up of the USSR created dozens of new independent states, European integration deepened, and globalisation tied economies together — but new threats appeared too: terrorism, financial crises and regional conflicts. Exams often ask about organisations and their founding years, the sequence of crises, and causes and consequences.
§1. The collapse of the USSR and the post-Soviet space
Causes: the crisis of the planned economy, the heavy burden of the arms race, the failure of perestroika reforms, and national revival and sovereignty movements in the union republics.
August 1991 — the failed coup attempt in Moscow (the State Emergency Committee); republics declared independence one after another (Uzbekistan on 31 August)
8 December 1991 — the Belovezha Accords (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus) stated that the USSR had ceased to exist and created the CIS; 21 December — the Alma-Ata Declaration: 11 republics, including Uzbekistan, joined the Commonwealth of Independent States
25 December 1991 — Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the USSR
Consequences: 15 independent states (the Baltics, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, the South Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia); a hard transition to the market; conflicts in several regions (Nagorno-Karabakh, the civil war in Tajikistan 1992–1997). Eastern Europe: on 1 January 1993 Czechoslovakia split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia; Yugoslavia broke up in bloody wars (the Bosnian War 1992–1995, the Dayton Agreement 1995; the 1999 Kosovo crisis and NATO air strikes).
§2. Integration and globalisation
The European Union:
1992 — the Maastricht Treaty was signed and came into force in 1993: the European Community became the European Union.
The euro — in non-cash use from 1999, in cash from 2002.
In 2004 ten states (mostly in Central and Eastern Europe) joined — the largest enlargement.
23 June 2016 — a referendum in the UK: the majority voted to leave the EU (Brexit).
NATO expanded eastwards: Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary in 1999; the Baltic states and others in 2004. Other groupings:
1995 — the World Trade Organization (WTO).
15 June 2001 — the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO): founders China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China, later South Africa: a group of large emerging economies.
ASEAN, the African Union (2002), regional trade blocs.
Globalisation is the growing free movement of goods, capital, information and people across borders. Its engines were the internet, mobile communications and transnational corporations. Benefits: economic growth and the spread of technology; costs: a widening gap between rich and poor countries and the rapid spread of crises.
§3. New threats and conflicts
11 September 2001 — terrorist attacks in the USA (New York, Washington); an international anti-terrorist coalition was formed
October 2001 — an international operation in Afghanistan against the Taliban regime.
2003 — the US-led invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
The 2008 global financial crisis began in the US mortgage market (the collapse of Lehman Brothers) and spread worldwide — the "flip side" of globalisation.
Late 2010 – 2011: the Arab Spring — protests against governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria; a long civil war in Syria and a refugee crisis.
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the Ukraine crisis from 2014, and instability in Afghanistan, which also affects Central Asian security.
§4. Global problems and the rise of Asia
Global problems: climate change, ecological disasters (including the Aral Sea tragedy), poverty, pandemics, nuclear non-proliferation.
1997 — the Kyoto Protocol; 2015 — the Paris climate agreement.
2015 — the UN Sustainable Development Goals (17 goals to 2030).
The rise of Asia:
Thanks to its reforms, China became the world's second-largest economy in the early 2010s; the Belt and Road Initiative (2013) aims to revive the Great Silk Road.
India — a fast-growing economy and an IT hub.
The regional role of South-East Asia (ASEAN), Turkey, Iran and the Gulf states increased.
The idea of a multipolar world: US leadership remains, but there are more centres of power — the EU, China, Russia, India.
§5. The information revolution, scientific progress and the pandemic
The modern world has been shaped not only by political events but also by technological change. It became the main engine of globalisation and transformed everyday life.
The internet: the idea of the World Wide Web was put forward by Tim Berners-Lee; it was opened to the public in 1991. In the 2000s broadband internet, social networks and smartphones sharply increased the speed at which information spreads.
An information society is one in which knowledge and information have become the main economic resource. Digital services, distance learning and e-government develop in it, while problems of cybersecurity and disinformation also arise.
Science: in 2003 the international Human Genome Project was completed; since 2000 a permanent crew has worked on the International Space Station — a symbol of cooperation between former Cold War rivals.
Artificial intelligence developed rapidly in the 2010s and 2020s and entered the economy and education.
11 March 2020 — the World Health Organization declared the spread of COVID-19 a pandemic
Consequences of the pandemic: borders closed, international trade and travel shrank, and many countries suffered an economic downturn; remote work and learning spread widely. Vaccines were developed in record time. The pandemic showed both sides of globalisation: the disease spread quickly, but scientific cooperation also produced results quickly. The link: technology → globalisation → interdependence → rapid spread of crises and pandemics. Understanding this chain makes the questions in §2 and §3 easier to answer.
Worked example
"Identify the cause: why did the 2008 financial crisis spread so quickly around the world?"
Its source was the US mortgage and banking system.
Because of globalisation, banks, stock exchanges and trade worldwide are closely linked.
So the right answer is "the interdependence of the world economy (globalisation)", not "the end of the Cold War" or "the Arab Spring" (which came later).
Worked example
"Order: the founding of the SCO; the Maastricht Treaty coming into force; euro cash introduced; the Brexit referendum; the Paris climate agreement."
Maastricht in force — 1993; SCO — 2001; euro cash — 2002; Paris agreement — 2015; Brexit — 2016.
That is the answer.
Worked example
"How much time passed between the Brexit referendum and the UK actually leaving the EU?"
Referendum — 23 June 2016; actual exit — 31 January 2020.
From 23 June 2016 to 23 January 2020 is 3 years 7 months.
Add another 8 days: in total 3 years 7 months 8 days, i.e. more than 3.5 years.
Check yourself
Which states signed the Belovezha Accords?
When and where did Uzbekistan join the CIS?
Which treaty created the European Union?
When was the SCO founded and what is Uzbekistan's role?
In which country did the Arab Spring begin?
How many Sustainable Development Goals are there and when were they adopted?
When did the WHO declare the spread of COVID-19 a pandemic?
Who proposed the idea of the World Wide Web?
Common mistakes
Saying the CIS was created only at Alma-Ata (it was created at Belovezha on 8 December and enlarged to 11 states at Alma-Ata on 21 December).
Thinking euro cash appeared in 1999 (1999 — non-cash, 2002 — cash).
Treating the Brexit referendum as the date the UK actually left the EU.
Dating the SCO to 1996 (1996 was the "Shanghai Five"; the SCO dates from 2001).
Placing German reunification (1990) after the collapse of the USSR.