The Cold War would therefore correspond to a realistic vision of the world: States, by nature, are selfish. But this does not fit in its entirety, because realism predicts that the world is “doomed to perpetual competition between great powers” ​​(Baylis, Smith, and Owens 2011). According to this theory, the Cold War should have ended because one state had defeated the other, but – and this is what has baffled political theorists – contrary to what the realist view expects, the USSR collapsed without a fight and almost entirely of its own accord. If the Cold War proved realism wrong, perhaps a goal of worldwide harmony was not such an implausible idea. The end of the Cold War has no exact date, but by August 1991 the threat of an expansionist Soviet Union had deteriorated. , due to the culmination of long-term crushing economic stagnation and numerous internal and external political and social tensions. But it wasn't just the end of a rivalry between two superpowers: it raised the possibility that world peace might not be so far off..