The Cold War was the period of hostility and tension between the Soviet bloc and the Western powers that followed the Second World War.
...the end of the cold war and the decline in armaments spending.
...the first major crisis of the post-Cold War era.
cold war in British English
noun
a state of political hostility and military tension between two countries or power blocs, involving propaganda, subversion, threats, economic sanctions, and other measures short of open warfare, esp that between the American and Soviet blocs after World War II (the Cold War)
cold war in American English
hostility and sharp conflict as in diplomacy and economics between states, without actual warfare