History Since 1945

Bachelor 2024/2025

Type: Compulsory course (International Program 'International Relations and Global Studies')

Area of studies: International Relations

Delivered by: Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs

Where: Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs

When: 2 year, 1, 2 module

Mode of studies: offline

Open to: students of one campus

Language: English

ECTS credits: 4

Full Syllabus

Abstract

This course covers the modern period of global history, focusing on the rise of decline of the post-WWI international order in different aspect: economic, social, political and geostrategic ones. There are no prerequisites for this course. However, a rigorous work during the course is required. Students who attend all classes, participate in discussions, solve home assignments, and complete the course projects would very likely pass the course with a good grade.

Learning Objectives

To understand the economic and social development European states in the interwar period (1920-1930);
Analyze the reasons and consequences of the Great Depression;
Have a deep and comprehensive outlook of the ideological context of the social and political development of European and non-European societies (rise of Fascism and Militarism, spread of Communist ideas);
To examine the preconditions and reasons of the WWII and policies of the Great Powers, which led to destruction of the post-WWI international order.

Expected Learning Outcomes

Be able to determine the role of Germany, Italy, Spain, and Japan in undermining collective security;
Be able to determine characteristic features of dictatorial regimes of Italy, Germany, and Spain;
Be able to determine the role of Versailles System in stimulating the rise of fascism in Europe;
Know strategic and military preconditions of WWII;
Know the impact of the Great Depression upon the progress that had been made in terms of international collaboration through the League;
Know the implications of the Treaty of Versailles for the Weimar Republic;
Know the reasons for the appearance of fascism in Europe;
Know the role of Germany and Italy in the Spanish Civil War;
Know the US role in international relations during the interwar period.
Understand the theory and logic of detente
know and understand the key treaties and events of the Detente policy
understant the context and nature of the Korean War
understand influence of the Korean war on the Cold War
learn the nature and context of the Vietnam war
learn the political and strategic developements in Eastern Europe in the first half of the Cold War

Course Contents

Post-war planning and the breakdown of the Grand Alliance, 1943–1944
The German question and the Marshall Plan: preventing the spread of Communism, 1946–1948
The onset of the Cold War: from containment to rollback, 1948–1953
Intelligence, propaganda and covert operations. Nuclear weapons and Cold War
The Sino-Soviet split
Détente, 1969–1979
The Cold War in Asia – Korea
The Cold War in Asia – Vietnam
The Soviet Union and the Cold War in eastern Europe, 1947–1962
The Cold War in Latin America – Guatemala and the Cuban Revolution, 1950–1963
The Cold War in the Middle East – the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1950–2000
The Cold War in Africa – Congo, the UN and Angola, 1959–1976
The end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism
The rise of China
The USA and the War on Terror. The USA and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

Assessment Elements

Final Exam
An oral exam to check student's knowlledge of the course
Seminar Activity
Evaluation of seminar activity includes participation at the discussions and fulfillment of other tasks related to student's work at the seminars
Mock Exam II
Mock Exam I
The exam includes writing of 3 essays chsen from a number of proposed topics

Interim Assessment

2024/2025 2nd module
0.4 * Final Exam + 0.1 * Mock Exam I + 0.1 * Mock Exam II + 0.2 * Seminar Activity + 0.2 * Seminar Activity

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

1989: democratic revolutions at the Cold War's end : a brief history with documents, Kenney, P., 2010
A century of revolution : insurgent and counterinsurgent violence during Latin America's long cold war, , 2010
After leaning to one side : China and its allies in the Cold War, Shen, Z., 2011
After the cold war : essays on the emerging world order, , 1997
Allende's Chile and the Inter-American Cold War, Harmer, T., 2011
America, Russia, and the Cold War 1945-1980, LaFeber, W., 1980
American foreign policy since World War II, Hook, S. W., 2013
APEC and the rise of China, , 2011
Asselin, P. (2013). Hanoi’s Road to the Vietnam War, 1954-1965. Berkeley: University of California Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=607163
Awakening giants, feet of clay : assessing the economic rise of China and India, Bardhan, P., 2010
Black market, Cold War : everyday life in Berlin, 1946-1949, Steege, P., 2007
British Imperial Strategy and the Origins of the Cold War 1944-49, Kent, J., 1993
British policy in South-East Europe in the Second World War, Barker, E., 1976
Cha, V. D. . V. (DE-588)138504644, (DE-627)603780091, (DE-576)181206668, aut. (2020). Allied decoupling in an era of US-China strategic competition Victor D. Cha.
Challenges to International Relations in Post-Cold War Europe, , 2002
Chinese foreign relations : power and policy since the Cold War, Sutter, R. G., 2012
Churchill's Cold War : the politics of personal diplomacy, Larres, K., 2002
Cold War exiles and the CIA : plotting to free Russia, Tromly, B., 2019
Detente after Brezhnev : the domestic roots of Soviet foreign policy, Yanov, A., 1977
Detente and Confrontation: American-Soviet Relations From Nixon to Reagan, Garthoff, R., 1985
Fink, C. (2017). Cold War : An International History. Boulder, CO: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1451271
Foreign intervention in Africa : from the Cold War to the war on terror, Schmidt, E., 2013
Gheciu, A. (2008). Securing Civilization? : The EU, NATO and the OSCE in the Post-9/11 World. OUP Oxford.
Halliday, F. (2004). 9/11 and Middle Eastern Studies past and future: revisitingIvory towers on sand. International Affairs, 80(5), 953–962. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2346.2004.00427.x
Hoffman, B. (2002). Rethinking Terrorism and Counterterrorism Since 9/11. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 25(5), 303–316. https://doi.org/10.1080/105761002901223
Ikenberry, G. J. (2008). The Rise of China and the Future of the West. (cover story). Foreign Affairs, 87(1), 23. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=f5h&AN=28018827
In the shadow of the greatest generation : the Americans who fought the Korean War, Pash, M. L., 2012
Levitsky, S., & Way, L. (2010). Competitive Authoritarianism : Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War. Cambridge University Press.
Luttwak, E. (DE-588)120827115, (DE-576)162062117. (2012). The rise of China vs. the logic of strategy / Edward N. Luttwak. Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.]: Belknap. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.382479831
Nixon, Kissinger, and the shah : the United State and Iran in the Cold War, Alvandi, R., 2014
Nixon, Kissinger, and U.S. Foreign policy making : the machinery of crisis, Siniver, A., 2008
Palmadessa, A. L. (2019). Cold War: Global Impact and Lessons Learned. New York: Nova. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=2156015
Parta, R. Eugene. Empirical Assessment of Radio Liberty and Western Broadcasting to the USSR During the Cold War, Hoover Institution Press, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3301867.
Robert Jervis. (1980). The Impact of the Korean War on the Cold War. Journal of Conflict Resolution, (4), 563. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.a.sae.jocore.v24y1980i4p563.592
Robert S. Ross, & Øystein Tunsjø. (2017). Strategic Adjustment and the Rise of China : Power and Politics in East Asia. Cornell University Press.
Sheila Fitzpatrick. (2014). A Spy in the Archives : A Memoir of Cold War Russia. I.B. Tauris.
Smetana, V., & Kramer, M. (2014). Imposing, Maintaining, and Tearing Open the Iron Curtain : The Cold War and East-Central Europe, 1945–1989. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=670088
Soviet - american relations : the detente years, 1969 - 1972, , 2007
Stueck, W. W. (1995). The Korean War : An International History. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=75031
The 1967 Arab-Israeli war : origins and consequences, , 2012
The Cambridge history of the Cold War. Vol.2: Crises and detente, , 2010
The First Vietnam War : colonial conflict and Cold War crisis, , 2007
The Iraq War : European perspectives on politics strategy and operations, , 2006
The Iraq wars and America's military revolution, Shimko, K. L., 2010
The limits of detente : the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Arab-Israeli conflict, 1969-1973, Daigle, C., 2012
The United States in the Vietnam war, 1954-1975 : a selected annotated bibliography of English-language sources, Peake, L. A., 2008
The Vietnam war, Anderson, D. L., 2005
Weathersby, K., Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars., & Cold War International History Project. (1993). Soviet aims in Korea and the origins of the Korean War, 1945-1950 : new evidence from Russian archives /.
Why intelligence fails : lessons from the Iranian Revolution and the Iraq War, Jervis, R., 2010
Yoshimi, S. (2003). “America” as desire and violence: Americanization in postwar Japan and Asia during the Cold War. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 4(3), 433–450. https://doi.org/10.1080/1464937032000143797
Zhao, J. (2013). Theory of China Model and the Rise of China. [Place of publication not identified]: Paths International Ltd. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1285796
Zubok, V. M. (2002). Gorbachev and the End of the Cold War: Perspectives on History and Personality. Cold War History, 2(2), 61. https://doi.org/10.1080/713999954
Zubok, V. M. (2007). A Failed Empire : The Soviet Union in the Cold War From Stalin to Gorbachev. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=301081

Authors

NOVIKOV DMITRIY PAVLOVICH
Вишнякова Наталия Владимировна

Course Syllabus