Prof David Stevenson 3.11 (SAR)

This course is compulsory on the BSc in International Relations and BSc in International Relations and History. This course is available on the BA in History, BSc in Economic History, BSc in Government and History and BSc in Politics and International Relations. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

The course aims to equip students with a comprehensive knowledge of international politics since 1890, to provide a factual grounding and interpretive apparatus necessary to understand the contemporary world, and to survey the main historiographical debates. Lectures and classes examine the origins, course, and aftermath of the First World War; the Great Depression, appeasement , and the origins of the Second World War in East Asia and Europe; the course and aftermath of the Second World War and the global origins of the Cold War: and aspects of the Cold War world, including decolonization, European integration, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the ‘American war’ in Vietnam, and peaks and troughs of tension between the superpowers from  the Cuban Missile Crisis to détente. The course closes with the end of the Cold War and the origins of the post-Cold War era. 

11 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the MT. 10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the LT. 1 hour of lectures in the ST.

There will be a lecture only (no class) in the Michaelmas Term reading week, and neither a lecture nor a class in the Lent Term reading week. There will be a revision lecture in Summer Term.

Students will be required to write three 2,000-word essays during the course of the year, two in MT and one in LT, from topics chosen from a past examination paper or designated in the course reading list, and in addition to complete a one-hour mock examination in LT. Essays and mock examination do not form part of the final course assessment. However, they are required components of the course, and students must complete them in order to be admitted to the course examination.

A detailed course outline and reading list, subdivided by weekly topics, will be found in the HY116 Moodle site. The following works offer useful background: students should consider reading one  of them in advance: A. Best, J. Hanhimäki, J. Maiolo, K. E. Schulze,  International History of the Twentieth Century and Beyond  (2015);  W R Keylor, The Twentieth Century World and Beyond: an International History since 1900 (2011).

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.