<P> The fall of communism formed an existential threat for many institutions . The US military was forced to cut much of its expenditure, though the level rose again to comparable heights after the September 11 attacks and the initiation of the War on Terror in 2001 . </P> <P> Socialist parties around the world saw drops in membership after the Berlin Wall fell and the public felt that free market ideology had won . </P> <P> The end of the Cold War also coincided with the end of apartheid in South Africa . Declining Cold War tensions in the later years of the 1980s meant that the apartheid regime was no longer supported by the West as a bulwark against communism and they were condemned with an embargo . In 1990, Nelson Mandela was freed from prison and the regime made steps to end apartheid, which were on an official basis completed by 1994 with the new election . </P> <P> Libertarian, neoliberal, nationalist and Islamist parties on the other hand benefited from the fall of the Soviet Union . As capitalism had "won", as people saw it, socialism in general declined in popularity . Socialist Scandinavian countries privatized many of their commons in the 1990s and a political debate on modern institutions re-opened . Scandinavian nations are now more seen as social democrat (see Nordic model). </P>

Changing roles of transnational organizations in the post cold war era