166-446 Theories of the Cold War

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This subject examines the Cold War. What was it? How do we explain it? When and why did it start? When and why did it end? How did it end? Who won? Who lost? What can we learn from it? Does its demise mean simply the end of another interstate power struggle, or the end of 'international relations' as traditionally conceived? An examination will be made of how and why explanations over time shifted from orthodox accounts of Soviet communist expansionism to revisionist accounts of American capitalist neo-imperialism, to the more recent and contending post-revisionist theories. How useful are IR theories in helping us to understand or explain the Cold War? In critically assessing these theories gender and ethnicity will be considered as possible factors in their construction. At the end of the course students should be able to critically evaluate the contending theories regarding the origins, demise and consequences of the Cold War.

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Prescribed Texts:

• Charles W. Kegley Jr. (ed), The Long Postwar Peace: Contending Explanations and Projections