How did an increasing militarism by both the US and USSR impact the world in the second half of the 20th century?

Answer 1

There are a few major issues to look at here.

1. Increased "factionism" and political division throughout the world. In a literal sense, the Iron Curtain that divided Germany was a visible symbol of how nations were now forced to pick sides between democracy and Communism. Of course many other nations were behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, often against the will of the nations. Formal alliances such as NATO (an alliance of Western nations) and the Warsaw Pact (the Communist answer) tied the security and ecomomic fates of allied countries together. Countries were obligated to provide military support to allies, which helped pave the way for American and Russian military presence spreading abroad.
2. Advancement of peripheral technologies that often had roots in military tech. The Space Race resulted in great leaps forward for mankind (as one gentleman put it), but that progress had its root jn the US/USSR competition for military and scientific supremacy. It wasn't just a feel-good science moment when man made it to space and the moon. All of that technology and the govt agencies and defence contractors involved surely knew that satellites, computing technology, new materials science, and other advances would be an integral part of our defense systems. Many of those military advances have trickled down to improve civilian life. For example, the internet started as ARPANET, a military computer communications network. Advances in jet aircraft for military use also helped make possible jet flight for commercial purposes, and so on.
3. Far-reaching foreign influence for both nations. This is related to the first point and also includes countries outside of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The US felt its role was to protect against the spread of Communism, so it intervened militarily in cpuntries such as Vietnam and Korea. The USSR and the US provided military tech and other assistance to countries to help persuade them from the opposing side, or to bolster countries already opposed to the "enemy." In questions of foreign policy towards places like the Middle East, the USSR and many Arab states saw a common enemy in the United States, and vice versa.
4. Permanently enlarged military. Before the Cold War, the United States military was much smaller in peace time. After WW 2, the US beefed up its standing army and other forces to always be ready for a Communist threat. For many decades, the Us always had aerial reconnaissance around the clock to monitor the USSR. The constant state of alertness and readiness for both sides and everyone else in the world created a worldwide sense of tension that at any moment a nuclear war or other disaster could spark, and also permanently changed the way the US and USSR allocated resources (I'm sure you've heard how a lot of US citizens are opppsed to how big our military spending is; that started with the Cold War). The military industrial complex became a permanent, significant economic player.