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:
Post–Cold War era
The post–Cold War era is the period in world history from the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 9:00 am, December 26, 1991 to the present. The term was criticized for its ambiguity: "Even though it has been ten years since the Berlin Wall came down," wrote Paul Wolfowitz in 2000, "we still have no better name for the period in which we live than the "post-Cold War era"." The name means that this new era “does not yet have a name.” It was suggested that "Pax Americana" or "clash of civilisations" would more reflect the reality of the era but the former term would be "offending for many." The same dilemma expressed Condoleezza Rice: “That we do not know how to think about what follows the US-Soviet confrontation is clear from the continued references to the "post-Cold War period.'" "We knew better where we had been than where we were going.”