Outline of the Cold War
End of the Cold War – While many observers state the 1989 Malta Summit was the end of the Cold War, it was December 1991 before the Presidents of the United States and the Soviet Union formally recognised the conflict's end, with the Soviet Union also being dissolved at that time. Some key events leading up to the end include:
Joe 90
In the fictional universe of "Joe 90", the Cold War—significant at the time of the series' TV debut, owing to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968—has ended, and a world government has been established. WIN is the successor organisation to MI6, the CIA and the KGB, all of which have been merged in the formation of the global network. Although the pilot sees Joe hijacking a Russian jet fighter to expose the secrets of its construction to the West, the storyline is ultimately revealed to be a speculative fiction posited by Weston as an example of the espionage that Joe would have to perform if he were to join WIN. The plot twist, in particular the revelation that Russia and the West are allies in the future, is praised by academic Nicholas J. Cull for its "progressiveness of spirit", and for exemplifying Anderson's "[taking] an end to the Cold War as a given in his work". Anderson was motivated by what he perceived as a "duty to the rising generation to avoid perpetuating Cold War stereotypes", once stating that he "tried very hard not to put [his] ten cents into creating World War Three".