HST401 The Global Cold War

30 credits, Semester two
Module leaders 2024-25: Sebastian Gehrig and George Roberts

Module summary

This module explores the Cold War as a global phenomenon. While Europe played a central role in the origins and denouement of the ideological contest between the United States and the Soviet Union, for the past twenty years or so historians have explored in greater depth the impact of the Cold War in the global South. This latter group of scholars have examined the Cold War as a Superpower competition over the political and economic future of the so-called “Third World” and explored the agency of actors in the global South. Studies have expanded beyond an initial focus on ideology, diplomacy and security to a wider set of issues including economic development, culture, and human rights, and beyond international histories to include transnational and domestic ones. We now have a Cold War historiography which stresses pluralism and diversity of conception, method, and interpretation.

Through a series of case studies ranging from Europe to Asia, Africa and Latin America and including the home front in the United States and the Soviet Union, we will examine these new historiographical developments. While remaining attentive to the local dynamics that drove political, economic, and social developments in Europe and the global South, we will explore the extent to which the Cold War structured the international system and constrained choices available to countries around the world. What was the Global Cold War? How did it play out and interact with local dynamics in specific locales? Is it possible to study the Cold War as a series of conflicts and transformations around the world without losing conceptual clarity? What are the methodological implications of studying the Cold War in a global perspective?

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, you will be able to:

Analyse a number of case studies in the history of the Global Cold War
Identify and critically assess historiographical debates in the field, as well as primary sources and relate them to these historiographical debates
Critically examine primary sources and the historiography to produce evidence-based and persuasive arguments in oral and written form.

Assessment methods

Assessment type - % of final mark

4,000 word essay - 80%
Engagement and participation task(s) - 20%

You will complete a 4,000 word essay on a topic related to one of the module's key themes. You will define your own essay topic in discussion with your tutor.

You will also complete an engagement and participation exercise based on the learning activities and environment for the module. This task will be set by the module leader but may include activities such as presentations, reflective seminar diaries, contributions to discussion forums or collaborative documents.

Additional learning and teaching information 2024-25

Teaching and indicative seminar schedule 2024-25:

The module will be taught in ten, two-hour classes. The content of the module and seminar topics will related to the specialisms of the module tutors.

You will also have individual tutorial contact with the module tutors in order to discuss your assessment for this module.

Seminar topics will include:

Ideology and the Origins of the Cold War
The Battle for Hearts and Minds: Cold War Internationalisms
'Development' and the Cold War
Race, Decolonisation, and the Cold War in Africa
Human Rights and the Cold War
Peaceful revolutions? Ending the Cold War

Selected reading 2024-25:

Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (eds), The Cambridge History of the Cold War, Vols. 1-3 (Cambridge, 2010)
Sandrine Kott, A World More Equal: An Internationalist Perspective on the Cold War (New York, 2024).
Jonathan Haslam, Russia’s Cold War. From the October Revolution to the Fall of the Wall (New Haven, 2011)
Robert J. McMahon, The Cold War in the Third World (Oxford, 2013).
Tanya Harmer, Allende’s Chile and the Inter-American Cold War (UNC, 2011)
Heonik Kwon, The Other Cold War (New York, 2010)
Lorenz Luthi, Cold Wars: Asia, the Middle East, Europe (Cambridge, 2020)
Sarah Snyder, Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War: A Transnational History of the Helsinki Network (Cambridge, 2011)
James Mark, Paul Betts, et al., Socialism Goes Global. The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the Age of Decolonisation (Oxford, 2022)
Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge, 2005)

Additional learning and teaching information 2023-24

Teaching and indicative seminar schedule 2023-24:

The module will be taught in ten, two-hour classes. The content of the module and seminar topics will related to the specialisms of the module tutors.

You will also have individual tutorial contact with the module tutors in order to discuss your assessment for this module.

Seminar topics will include:

Ideology and the Origins of the Cold War
Covert Action and the 1953 Coup in Iran
The Cuban Revolution
Development and the Vietnam War
Anticommunist violence and repression
Human Rights and the End of the Cold War

Selected reading 2023-24:

Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (eds), The Cambridge History of the Cold War, Vols. 1-3 (Cambridge, 2010)
Anne Garland-Mahler, From the Tricontinental to the Global South: Race, Radicalism and Transnational Solidarity (Duke, 2018)
David Engerman, et al (eds), Staging Growth: Modernization, Development, and the Global Cold War (Amherst, 2003)
Tanya Harmer, Allende’s Chile and the Inter-American Cold War (UNC, 2011)
Heonik Kwon, The Other Cold War (New York, 2010)
Lorenz Luthi, Cold Wars: Asia, the Middle East, Europe (Cambridge, 2020)
Sarah Snyder, Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War: A Transnational History of the Helsinki Network (Cambridge, 2011)
Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge, 2005)

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