How did countries gain and lose power in the cold war?

I’m interested in this topic because I find it interesting that even though the cold war wasn’t really a war with fighting in it, there were countries that technically had more power than others. I want to know more about this and what they did to have more power. I also chose this topic because I want to know more about the space and arms race that was happening at the time and  I just overall want to know more things about the cold war.