Even before World War II had ended, the victors were competing to achieve the best possible postwar position. As long as a powerful common enemy remained in the field, the great coalition held together. The common interest in defeating the Axis states transcended and muted the latent rivalry and conflict between the Soviet Union and the two leading Western powers, Great Britain and the United States. Whatever the wartime cooperation had done to reduce the basic hostility that had previously marked Soviet relations with the leading democratic and capitalist states, the common heroism and sacrifices could not submerge the basic relationship that East and West were destined to assume toward one another.
Rivalry is endemic to the nation-state system.
The logic of the nation-state system breeds insecurity, distrust, rivalry, and hostility. In theory all members are enemy to the others, but in practice the international system at any given time does not generally comprise all nations attracting and repelling each other at random. Or two rivals may seek to make an alliance with the state on the opponent's other border. Another pattern was illustrated when Great Britain, confronted by the emergence of Wilhelmian Germany as both a naval rival and as a threat to European balance of power after 1890, relinquished its ambitions in the Caribbean in favor of the United States and in the area of Manchuria in favor of Japan. Rivalry is also endemic to the nation-state system for psychological reasons.