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Apost-war orpostwar period is the interval immediately following the end of awar. The term usually refers to a varying period of time afterWorld War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become aninterwar period or interbellum, when a war between the same parties resumes at a later date (such as the period betweenWorld War I and World War II). By contrast, a post-war period marks the cessation ofarmed conflict entirely.

The term "post-war" can have different meanings in different countries and refer to a period determined by local considerations based on the effect of the war there. Some examples of post-war events are in chronological order:

Cold War (1947–1991)

The Cold War was a geopolitical conflict between thecapitalist andliberal "democratic"United States, the authoritarian andCommunistMarxist–LeninistSoviet Union, and their respective allies:NATO and theWestern Bloc for the United States, and theWarsaw Pact and theEastern Bloc for the Soviet Union. Although both sides did not fight each other directly, both engaged through various proxy wars. At the height of the cold war, both superpowers manufactured and deployed thousands ofnuclear weapons to target each other's key economic, military, and political centers. Each superpower's buildup and demonstration of nuclear strike capabilities lead to an unofficial military doctrine known asmutual assured destruction (MAD). The doctrine of MAD prompted leaders on both sides to believe that victory following a full-scale nuclear exchange was simply impossible as the destruction on both sides would be insurmountable. Towards the end of the Cold War, a period ofdétente culminated in the easing of tensions, bans on nuclear testing, and the destruction of various quantities of nuclear stockpiles. The Cold War began to come to an end in 1989 with the overthrow of Communist governments across Eastern Europe in theRevolutions of 1989 which was followed shortly after by thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, leaving the United States the world's sole superpower.

Korean War (1950–1953)

On 25 June 1950, after years of tension between communistNorth Korea and democraticSouth Korea, North Korea coordinated a series of surprise attacks against strategic points between the 38th parallel. Soon US-ledUnited Nations forces joined the war on behalf of South Korea, expelled the North Korean invasion, and then invaded and nearly captured North Korea. In response,Chinese forces entered the war on behalf of North Korea and pushed the US, South Korean, and UN forces back to the 38th parallel. After 3 years of advances and retreats nearly five million people died. To this very day there are still border disputes between the two Koreas.

Civil rights movement (1954–1968)

In the 1950s, African Americans faceddiscrimination andsegregation throughout the United States, especially in the south where many could not even vote. In 1954, theSupreme Court ruled unanimously inBrown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. By the end of the 1950s, fewer than 10 percent of Black children in the South were attending integrated schools.

Vietnam war (1955–1975)

The Vietnam War was fought between the communistNorth Vietnam supported by the Soviet Union,China, and the Eastern Bloc and China andSouth Vietnam supported by the United States andSEATO. This war is especially brutal due toNorth Vietnamese regular forces andViet Cong insurgents in South Vietnam adapting to guerrilla fighting and ambush tactics against theSouth Vietnamese military and theUnited States Armed Forces. Vietnam was one of the first wars to be broadcast totelevision. Many American civilians and soldiers wereopposed to the war due to the condition and many thought the war was pointless. Finally after many protests the United States slowly withdrew from Vietnam due to public backlash.

Considering the post-war era as equivalent to the Cold War era, post-war sometimes includes the 1980s, putting the end at 26 December 1991, with thedissolution of the Soviet Union.^[1][2] The 1990s and the 21st century are sometimes described as part of the post-war era, but the more specific phrase "Post–Cold War era" is often appended to distinguish the period running from the fall of Communism up to the present.

In Britain, "post-war":

• culturally, is a term commonly used in the arts and architecture, as it is worldwide. It is primarily and especially before the ascendancy ofPop Art and overlapping "post-modernist" "1960s" movements. Its end is complex due to its archetypes of the 1950s contrasting with leading developments inavant-garde music genres and in popular art, becoming to some audiences mainstream, before 1960. Its movements such as continuedfunctionalism andbrutalism were overtaken by the, definitively raucous,counterculture of the 1960s, dominating as the decade wore on. Later resurgences to its stress on quite basic forms were common such aspostmodernism andminimalism.
• politically and economically
  • at its broadest, is the period from the election ofClement Attlee in 1945 general election to that ofMargaret Thatcher in the 1979 general election, the so-calledpost-war consensus.
  • at its narrowest, usually with precise or contextual qualifiers, it is the war's direct aftermath; this prompted social solidarity, unprecedented high capital, particularlyinheritance taxation, internationalism, thedecolonization of theBritish Empire, the founding and endowing of theNational Health Service all amid relative austerity particularlyrationing. Hardships incapital taxation, and ofrationing, faded due toglobal recovery, technological advances andconsumerism enabled and encouraged from the late 1950s such as under the four-successive leaderConservative government, 1957–1964. These set a social norm for a majority of out-of-town journeys in private rather than public transport and private housing preferred overpublic housing, continued (with minor abatement) through alternating governments of the next two decades.^[3][4][5]

Look uppost-war in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Interwar period
  • Pre-war (not a synonym for interwar when referring to World War I)
• Aftermath of the September 11 attacks
• Postbellum
• Reconstruction era of the U.S.
• Post–Cold War era

• Post-war period
• Aftermath of war
• Aftermath of World War II

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