Prof Vladislav Zubok

This course is available on the MSc in Empires, Colonialism and Globalisation, MSc in History of International Relations, MSc in International Affairs (LSE and Peking University), MSc in International and World History (LSE & Columbia) and MSc in Theory and History of International Relations. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course examines the origins of the Cold War and the dynamics of its rise during the period from the Russian Revolution in 1917 to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. It looks at long-term trends as well as specific events in order to elucidate how the Cold War originated and evolved. It deals with the Cold War as international history, covering the period from a wide variety of geographical and national angles: while some meetings necessarily centre on an individual state or a bilateral relationship, there will be others that deal with a wider region or with global trends. Intellectually, therefore, the course stresses the transformation of the field from the study of (primarily American) national foreign policy to a broader international approach.

There are seminars on the following topics: The German Question, 1917-1943; The Breakdown of the Grand Alliance, 1943-1946; The Division of Germany; The Sovietisation of Eastern Europe and the Yugoslav Exception; The Marshall Plan and the Foundation of NATO; The United States and Japan, 1945-1962; The Communist Victory in China and the Origins of the Korean War; The Korean War; Grand Strategy I: The Soviet Union and the Post-War World, 1945-1953; Grand Strategy II: The United States and the Post-War World, 1945-1953; Cold War Liberalism and McCarthyism: Anti-Communism and the Cold War in American Politics and Culture; The Sino-Soviet Alliance, 1954-1962; Indochina Wars: From the French Indochina War to the Eve of American Intervention; Eastern Europe from 1953 to the Aftermath of the 1956 Revolutions; The Berlin Crisis, 1958-1962; From the Cuban Revolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1958-1962; Grand Strategy III: Soviet Foreign Policy from Stalin's Death to the Cuban Missile Crisis; Grand Strategy IV: US National Security Policy from Eisenhower to Kennedy; The World Economy and the Cold War, 1917-1962; Nuclear Weapons, Technology and the Cold War, 1945-1962; Ideology and Culture.

There are lectures covering the following topics: The Breakdown of the Grand Alliance, 1943-1946; The Division of Germany; The Iron Curtain; The Marshall Plan and the Foundation of NATO; The United States and Japan, 1945-1965; The Outbreak of the Korean War; The Sino-Soviet Alliance; The 1956 Hungarian Revolution; Technologies, Weapons, and the Arms Race; The Cuban Revolution and the 1962 Missile Crisis; Culture and Mindsets.

10 hours of lectures and 20 hours of seminars in the MT. 10 hours of lectures and 20 hours of seminars in the LT. 1 hour of lectures and 4 hours of seminars in the ST.

Twenty-two two-hour hour seminars and eleven one-hour survey lectures. The twofold emphasis of the seminars is on working with primary sources and working with the historiography, in particular the recent 'New Cold War History', in order to understand how historians have interpreted (and re-interpreted) the origins of the Cold War in light of their access to new sources. The lectures are joint with HY206.

Students are required to write two pieces of formative coursework during the year (the third essay is assessed, see below): one essay in the Michaelmas Term and an in-class mock examination in the Summer Term.

M.P. Leffler/O.A. Westad (eds), The Cambridge History of the Cold War; J.M. Hanhimäki/O.A. Westad (eds), The Cold War: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts; J.L. Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History; V.M.Zubok, A Failed Empire.

Exam (75%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.
Essay (25%) in the LT.