Contemporary World History

The subject is a continuation of the lecture entitled History of International Relations. It is focused on the Cold War in and outside Europe. It delivers the historical background for the analysis of current international relations. It improves student's ability to think critically, especially in relation to foreign affairs.

List of topics

1. Yalta, Potsdam and the World order after the Second World War

a) The end of the Second World War

b) Key problems at Yalta and Potsdam Conferences

c) UN and the World Order after the Second World War

2. The Beginning of the Cold War: NATO, Berlin and the Warsaw Pact

a) Growing antagonism between Western States and the Soviet Union

b) The role of nuclear weaponry factor

c) Establishing of the Soviet dominant role in Eastern Europe

d) Question of Germany and Berlin

e) North Atlantic Treaty Organization

f) First Berlin crisis (Berlin Blockade)

g) Warsaw Pact

3. Korean War: The 'clash' between East and West under the flag of the United Nations.

a) Korea during the Second World War

b) Asia in Soviet Policy

c) Korea in Chinese Policy

d) USA and the Asian theater of international relations

e) Outbreak of the war and UN intervention

f) Chinese access the war

g) The USSR and the armistice

4. USSR and East-Central Europe after Stalin’s death

a) Stalin and his influence on satellite states

b) Stalin’s death

c) Fight for power in the USSR

d) Triumvirate takes control

e) Khrushchev’s address and thaw

f) Polish strikes: price of autonomy

g) Revolution in Hungary: limits of the thaw

5. Israel and the Suez Crisis

a) Genesis of Israel

b) UN plan for Israel

c) Jewish unrest and the establishing of Israel

d) Jewish state as alien being in the Muslim Middle East

e) Israeli-Arab relations: foundations and threats

f) Egypt under Nasser

g) Israeli factor in Egyptian foreign policy

h) Suez Canal and the Egyptian relations with Great Britain and France

i) The role of (post-)colonial factor

j) Suez Crisis

k) The role of the USA and the USSR

l) Change of guard in the Middle East; withdrawal of Britain and coming of the USA

6. The end of 'white man’s burden': Decolonization of Africa

a) The roots of colonization

b) Africa as the central point of colonialism

c) Decolonization: cultural basis

d) Decolonization: political basis

e) Decolonization: economic basis

f) Decolonization of Africa as process and revolution

g) UN and decolonization

h) 1970s economic crisis and its influence on African states

7. China under Mao Zedong

a) China in the time of last Emperor and birth of the republic

b) Jiang Jeshi and the incompetence of nationalist forces

c) Mao an communist great march

d) Establishing of Chinese People’s Republic

e) Mao and his vision of China

f) Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution

g) Foreign policy: the USSR and Asia

h) Foreign policy: USA and the end of isolation

8. The Cuban Crisis and the fear of Nuclear War.

a) Khrushchev and his relations with the USA, 1953-1961

b) Turkey and the American nuclear weaponry

c) Cuba: Revolution and the origins of its break with the USA

d) Cuba: relations with the USSR

e) Khrushchev’s missile idea

f) Monroe Doctrine in American foreign policy

g) Kennedy and ExComm in face of Soviet Cuban policy

h) Crisis and its results

9. Vietnam War - American problem or international question?

a) French Indochina

b) First Indochina War and the American involvement

c) Khrushchev and the division of Indochina (Paris Conference)

d) Vietnam War: Causes

e) Vietnam War: Chinese role

f) Vietnam War: Laos and Cambodia factor

g) Vietnam War: American loses – reasons

h) Vietnam War: Changing American attitude towards the conflict

i) Vietnam War: social and cultural impact

j) American withdrawal and its repercussions

k) Legacy

10. The Fall of the Nations and the war in Yugoslavia

a) Crisis and attempts to reform the USSR

b) Sinatra Doctrine

c) Fall of the communist regimes in East-Central Europe

d) Disintegration of the USSR

e) USA as the world’s greatest power

f) Disintegration of Yugoslavia

g) Europe and its attempts to act as local power during the Balkan Crisis

h) Europe’s impotence and the American encroachment, and Russian factor

i) Dayton Agreement

11. From idea to political organization - European Union.

a) First ideas of the European unity (from ancient Rome to the between the wars period)

b) Image of Europe after the Second World War

c) Reasons for integration

d) Fears connected to integration

e) Soviet and American impact

f) Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman ideas

g) Konrad Adenauer’s role

h) The Establishing of the European Coal and Steel Community

i) Evolution of the European project and British counter-project

j) European Communities: 1980s and 1990s enlargements

k) Former communist states and 2004 and 2005 enlargement

l) EU as quasi-state

12. Test

Compulsory textbooks

1. Best Anthony and others, International History of the Twentieth Century and Beyond, Routledge 2008.

2. Calvocoressi Peter, World politics since 1945, London ; New York : Longman, 1991

Supplementary textbooks:

1. Kissinger Kenry, Diplomacy, New York Simon & Schuster 1994.

2. Kennedy Paul, The Rise and Fall of Great Powers: economic change and military conflict from 1500 to 2000, Random House 1987, Vintage Books 1989

3. Williamson David, Access to History for the IB Diploma. The Cold War, Hodder Education 2013

Additional readings

1. Anderson Sheldon, A Cold War in the Soviet Bloc: Polish-East German Relations, 1945-1962, Westview Press 2001

2. Applebaum Anne, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956, Doubleday 2012

3. Arbel David, Edelist Ran, Western Intelligence and the Collapse of the Soviet Union: 1980-1990: Ten Years that did not Shake the World, Frank Cass 2003

4. Ashton Nigel John, Eisenhower, Macmillan, and the Problem of Nasser: Anglo-American Relations and Arab Nationalism, 1955-59, Palgrave Macmillan 1996

5. Barr James, A line in the sand : Britain, France and the struggle for the mastery of the Middle East, Simon & Schuster 2011

6. Beisner Robert L., Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War, Oxford University Press 2006

7. Bernstein Richard, China 1945: Mao's Revolution and America's Fateful Choice, Knopf 2014

8. Betts Raymond, Decolonization, Routledge 1998

9. Birmingham David, The Decolonization of Arfrica, Routledge 1995

10. Bischof Günter, Karner Stefan, Ruggenthaler Peter (eds.), The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Lexington Books 2009.

11. Bisley Nick, The End of the Cold War and the Causes of Soviet Collapse, Palgrave Macmillan 2004

12. Blair Alasdair, The European Union since 1945, Pearson 2005

13. Borhi Laszlo, Hungary in the Cold War, 1945-1956, Central European University Press 2004

14. Brown Archie, The Rise and fall of communism, Ecco 2009

15. Buhite Russel D., Decisions at Yalta: An Appraisal of Summit Diplomacy, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 1992

16. Bullock Alan, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives, Fontana Press 1998

17. Byrne Malcolm (ed.), Cardboard Castle?: An Inside History Of The Warsaw Pact, 1955-1991, CEU Press 2005

18. Caroline Elkins, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya, Owl Books 2005.

19. Chan Alfred L., Mao's Crusade : Politics and Policy Implementation in China's Great Leap Forward, 2001

20. Chandler David, Bosnia: Faking Democracy after Dayton, Pluto Press 2000

21. chollet Derek, The Road to the Dayton Accords: A Study of American Statecraft, Palgrave Macmillan 2005

22. Cook Steven A., The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square, Oxford University Press 2011

23. Crump Laurien, The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered: International Relations in Eastern Europe, 1955-1969, Routledge 2015.

24. Daniels Robert V., The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia, Yale University Press 2007

25. Dedman Martin, The Origins and Development of the European Union 1945-1995: A History of European Integration, Routledge 1996

26. Dobbs Michael, Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire, Vintage 1998

27. Dülffer Jost, Grey Marc, Elites and Decolonization in the Twentieth Century, Palgrave Macmillan 2011

28. Dumbrell John, A Special Relationship: Anglo American Relations from the Cold War to Iraq, Palgrave Macmillan 2006

29. Edwards Spalding Elizabeth, The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, and the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism, University of Kentucky Press 2006

30. El-Ayouty Yassin, The United Nations and Decolonization: The Role of Afro — Asia, Springer Netherlands 1971

31. Frankel Max, High Noon in the Cold War: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Presidio Press 2004

32. Freedman Lawrence, Kennedy's Wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam, Oxford University Press 2000

33. Gaddis John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy during the Cold War, Oford University Press 2005

34. Gaddis John Lewis,George F. Kennan: An American Life, Penguin Press 2011

35. Garavini Giuliano, After Empires : European Integration, Decolonization, and the Challenge from the Global South 1957-1986, Oxford University Press 2012

36. Gearson John, Schake Kori (eds.), The Berlin Wall Crisis: Perspectives on Cold War Alliances, 2003.

37. George Alice L., Awaiting Armageddon: How Americans Faced the Cuban Missile Crisis, University of North Carolina Press 2003.

38. Goduti Philip A., Kennedy's Kitchen Cabinet and the Pursuit of Peace: The Shaping of American Foreign Policy, 1961-1963, McFarland & Company 2009

39. Goncharov Sergei, Lewis John, Xue Litai, Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War, Stanford University Press 1995

40. Hanson Philip, The Rise and Fall of the The Soviet Economy: An Economic History of the USSR from 1945, Routledge 2003

41. Harbutt Fraser J., The Iron Curtain: Churchill, America, and the Origins of the Cold War, 1988

42. Harrington Daniel F., Berlin on the Brink: The Blockade, the Airlift and the Early Cold War, The Univeristy Press of Kentucky 2012.

43. Hayden Jacqueline, The Collapse of Communist Power in Poland: Strategic Misperceptions and Unanticipated Outcomes, Routledge 2006

44. Hayden Robert M, From Yugoslavia to the Western Balkans: Studies of a European Disunion, 1991-2011, Brill Academic Publications 2013

45. Hillstrom Laurie Collier, The Cuban Missile Crisis, Omnigraphics 2015

46. Hollander Paul, Political Will and Personal Belief: The Decline and Fall of Soviet Communism, Yale University Press 1999

47. Jian Chen, China's Road to the Korean War, Columbia University Press 1996

48. Jian Chen, Mao's China and the Cold War, 2001

49. Kaiser Wolfram, Christian Democracy and the Origins of European Union, Cambridge University Press 2007

50. Kaiser Wolfram, Leucht Brigitte, Rasmussen Morten (eds.), The History of the European Union: Origins of a Trans- and Supranational Polity 1950-72, Routledge 2008

51. Kaiser Wolfram, Varsori Antonio (eds.), European Union History: Themes and Debates, Palgrave Macmillan 2010

52. Karl Rebecca E., Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth-Century World: A Concise History, Duke University Press Books 2010

53. Kemp-Welch A., Poland under Communism: A Cold War History, Cambridge University Press 2008

Test (compulsory):

Marked 2 – less than 50% of the correct answers

Marked 3.0 - 50% of the correct answers

Marked 3.5 - 75% of the correct answers

Exam will consist of 20 questions, open and closed.

Activity (voluntary) – plus 0,5 to final grade (eg. 4,5 instead of 4.0), it does not work if the student fails exam and the research paper

Research paper (compulsory):

Initial information

The student is obliged to write his own original paper concerning the field of the lecture on the subject chosen by himself and approved by the lecturer. The topic of the research paper should be chosen by February 28th, 2019. Paper which subject is not consulted will not be accepted. Delivering the paper does not mean the student passed; quality of a paper decides.

Formatting

The text should count between 7.000 and 11.000 charts with spaces. The number does not include footnotes and bibliography.

The text should be adjusted, both, to the right and left margin. The font Times New Roman (12 pt) and 2 pt spaces between the lines are required. Margins should be 2 cm and the first line in each paragraph should start after 0.46 cm or 13 pt.

Quotation

Every exact quotation should be written in italics or in “”, and every addition in quotation should be in [ ]. The student's own underlines should be marked with bold or underlined writing. Omissions should be marked with […]. At the end of each quotation should be a reference to a footnote containing information about its source (author, title, publisher and year of publication, page).

Bibliography and footnotes

Every paper should contain bibliography and footnotes. The student is free to choose the style of footnotes, however, Chicago Manual Style 16th edition (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/16/contents.html) is preferred. Using websites is acceptable, but only those reliable. Using Wikipedia and similar sites is prohibited. Consulting bibliography with lecturer is recommended.

Delivering

Every paper should be delivered in 2 copies. First, is a DOC or DOCX file (other types are not accepted) which need to be sent to the lecturer (p.damski@vistula.edu.pl). Second, is a printed version of the file with the student's handwritten signature at every page. Both copies should be identical.

Student delivers the paper by the end of March, 2018. It is possible, in special cases (e.g. health problems, accelerated learning, etc.), to deliver it later, but in each such case student should ask for it earlier.

Before delivering the final version of the paper, the student has the right to consult it with the lecturer personally at the university (during the office hours or before the lecture) or via email and by phone.

Marking

Marked 3: The paper has poor construction (the lack of introduction and conclusion). The student used only textbooks and he focused on demonstration the facts without presenting his own interpretation of the subject. Paper is generally correct, but it contains some mistakes.

Marked 3.5: The paper contains some mistakes in construction (poorly emphasized introduction and conclusions). Besides textbooks student used small number of specialist literature. The student did little to present his own interpretation, and he focused on demonstration of the facts. Paper is generally correct, but it contains some mistakes.

Marked 4: The paper has proper construction. The foreword includes introduction to the subject, the main text its analysis, and the ending conclusions. Author used textbooks and specialist literature. Construction was undertaken after serious consideration, which was reflected in author's attempts to interpret the facts. Paper contains only few mistakes.

Marked 4.5: The paper has proper construction. The foreword includes introduction to the subject, the main text its analysis and the ending conclusions. Author used textbooks and specialist literature. Construction was undertaken after serious consideration, which was reflected in author's attempts to interpret the facts. Author made good use of quotations to prove his hypothesis and he did it with criticism, and shew other concepts that had been presented by historians and political scientists previously. Paper contains only minor mistakes.

Marked 5: The delivered paper has proper construction. The foreword includes introduction to the subject, the main text its analysis and the ending conclusions. Author used textbooks and specialist literature. Construction was undertaken after serious consideration, which was reflected in author’s attempts to interpret the facts. Author has made good use of quotations to prove his hypothesis and he has done it with criticism, and shew other concepts that had been presented by historians and spolitical scientists previously. The student entered in book-based polemics with former findings. Paper contains only minor mistakes.