HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Stampa
Anno immatricolazione
2020/2021
Anno offerta
2020/2021
Normativa
DM270
SSD
SPS/06 (STORIA DELLE RELAZIONI INTERNAZIONALI)
Dipartimento
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE POLITICHE E SOCIALI
Corso di studio
WORLD POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (POLITICA NEL MONDO E RELAZIONI INTERNAZIONALI)
Curriculum
PERCORSO COMUNE
Anno di corso
Periodo didattico
Primo Semestre (28/09/2020 - 11/12/2020)
Crediti
12
Ore
80 ore di attività frontale
Lingua insegnamento
English
Tipo esame
ORALE
Docente
Prerequisiti
Basic knowledge of post WWII international relations
Obiettivi formativi
This course is composed of 4 modules of 3 credits each offered in succession by the course's conveners and by rotating visiting professors each year. In the coming academic year two visiting professors (Professor V. Zubok and N. Swanstrom) will teach 50% of this fourth module each in collaboration with Professor Poggiolini and Professor Berkofsky.
The main aim of this course is equipping students with basic knowledge of the main trends, events and developments of politics and security in the Transatlantic region, Middle East/Africa and East Asia during the Cold War and in the post-Cold War era. As students will be asked to prepare a presentation and write a final paper, the course will equip them with those skills and abilities necessary to conduct in depth-research on a selected topic in international history and to present convincingly the results of their study/investigation. Students will learn to select and work with relevant archival digital sources and secondary literature in view of writing their final paper. At the end of this course students are expected to be familiar with basic facts and trends in international relations over the last 50 years (in the areas previously described) and to be able to compare and discuss different interpretations of these facts and trends on the basis of the existing literature and data. Students are also expected to establish connections between the contents of the modules of this course. Finally, students are expected to be able to exercise critical thinking in relation to this area of study and to orientate themselves objectively in accessing relevant web sources and dealing with the flow of information available on-line on this subject.
Programma e contenuti
Module 1: Africa, the Middle East and the Global Cold War (Prof. Massimo Zaccaria)
In the last twenty years the history of the Cold War has known a real renewal, in particular, two new perspectives have emerged: a stress on its global dimension and an emphasis on the diverse interrelationships between Cold War, Decolonization and the rise of the Third World.
After a general introduction to the issues and conceptual trends in Cold War history, this first module will focus on the impact of the Cold War in Africa and the Middle East.
So far, the dominant approach to the Cold War has been one that focuses mainly on the global competition of the two superpowers. However, the agency of non-Western countries during the Cold War deserve attention and will be the main focus of this course module. Combining global history, transnational history, and area studies, this module will analyse some empirical case studies (Egypt, Israel, and the Horn of Africa) to expose the complexities of Cold War’s confrontations in Africa and the Middle East.

Readings:
Cold War: A Historiographical Introduction
Readings: R.J. McMahon, The Cold War. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003.
What is Decolonization
Readings: M.P. Bradley, “Decolonization, the Global South, and the Cold War, 1919-1962”, in M.P. Leffler, O.A. Westad, The Cambridge History of the Cold War, Vol. I, pp. 464-485.
Africa and the Middle East During the Cold War
Readings: J.J. Byrne, “The Cold War in Africa”, in A.M. Kalinovsky and C. Daigle (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of the Cold War, London-New York, Routledge, 2014, pp. 149-162; E. Schmidt, “Africa”, in R.H. Immerman and P. Goedde (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Cold War, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 265-285.
Israel in Africa (part 1)
Readings: Arye Oded, “Africa in Israeli Foreign Policy. Expectations and Disenchantment: Historical and Diplomatic Aspects”, Israel Studies, 15, 3, 2010, pp. 121-142.
Israel in Africa (part 2)
Readings: Levey Zach, “Israel’s Strategy in Africa, 1961-67”, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 36, 1, 2004, pp. 71-87.
Egypt, Africa, and Anti-Colonialism
Readings: Reem Abou El-Fadl, “Building Egypt’s Afro-Asian Hub. Infrastructures of Solidarity and the 1957 Cairo Conference”, Journal of World History, 30, 1-2, pp. 157-192.
Shortwave-Radio Broadcasting and Anticolonial Nationalism: Radio Cairo
Readings: J.R. Brennan, “Radio Cairo and the Decolonization of East Africa, 1953-64”, in C.J. Lee (ed.), Making a World after Empire. The Bandung Moment and its Political Afterlives, Athens, Ohio University
Press, pp. 173-195.
Playing Diplomacy: Ethiopia and the Cold War
Readings: A.K. McVety, “Pursuing Progress: Point Four in Ethiopia”, Diplomatic History, 32, 3, 2008, pp. 371-403.

Module 2: The Cold War in Asia (Prof. Axel Berkofsky)
The second module of the course will analyze events, trends, and developments of international relations, politics, and security in North and East Asia from the 1960s to the present day. In this context, amongst
others the following topics will be analyzed and discussed: Sino-Chinese relations and the making and breaking of the China-Soviet Union alliance, Chinese foreign and security policies under Mao Zedong, Chinese-Japanese relations during the Cold War, the Korean War and its impact on regional and global politics and security, Japanese foreign and security policies, the Vietnam War and the US role in and impact on Asian security.
Visiting Professor Dr. Niklas Swanstrom, Institute for Security and Development Studies (ISDP), Stockholm, Sweden will be teaching 14 hours in the course’s second module.
Readings:
1. Selected chapters from Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi (ed.), The Cold War in East Asia, 1945-1991, Standford, Stanford University Press 2011.
2. Selected chapters from M.P. Leffler and O.A. Westad (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Cold War Volumes I, II, and III.
3. Selected chapters from J.P.D. Dunbabin, The Cold War. The Great Powers and their Allies, London, Routledge 2016.


Module 3 - offered by Ilaria Poggiolini - aims at giving students a structured overview of transatlantic relations and geo-political developments during the Cold War and in the post-Cold War years. Why does this theme matter today? The relationship between the two sides of the Atlantic is currently under significant strain and heading towards further disengagement. The scenario was very different when, in the aftermath of World War II, the transatlantic partnership was built on necessity and further strengthened during the cold war by the ideological, security, and economic convergence of the West. Europe – with American support – overcame the devastation and trauma of two world wars by creating a regional organization, the European Community (EC)/Union (EU), aimed originally at the end goal of achieving the Federation of Europe. When the confrontation with the Eastern block ended in 1989, both the European project and the transatlantic alliance seemed capable of reinventing themselves. However, after the strong post 9/11 transatlantic realignment in responding to the new level of threat posed by global terrorism, divergence of transatlantic views grew exponentially becoming an ingrained factor of discontent.
This academic year the origins of the renewed transatlantic partnership during the cold war as well as the transition from detente to the end of the cold war, will be taught bringing into the discussion the Soviet point of view, thanks to the expertise and contribution of visiting Professor Vladislav Zubok.
This module aims at providing students with a basic expertise and critical approach to the history and politics of transatlantic relations, contributing to the understanding of present developments within the broader scenario of past and present global American and European challenges, convergence and divergences in the last fifty years.
Metodi didattici
The course’s classes will include lectures by the conveners and VPs on the above-mentioned themes related to three main geographical areas. Lectures will be followed by seminars as a very relevant component of the learning experience of this course. They will allow for discussion on selected theme and will offer students the opportunity to contribute by presenting and debating their readings with the rest of the class and their teachers.
Testi di riferimento
A) Preparatory readings:
Dunbabin J.P.D., The Cold War. The Great Powers and their Allies, Routledge 2016
Leffler M.P. and Westad O.A. (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Cold War , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2010, vol. I, chap. 1 and 2
Westad O.A., The Cold War. A World History, New York, Basic Books 2017
B) Readings related to the module on Transatlantic relations:
- J. Hanhimaki, B. Schoenborn, B. Zanchetta, Transatlantic Relations since 1945, 2012. This is a good, concise guide to the evolution of transatlantic relations from 1945 to today.
Geir Lundestad, ‘Empire by Integration’: The United States and European Integration, 1945- 
1997 (OUP, 2003)
- The Cambridge History of the Cold War (M.P. Leffler and O. A. Westad eds), volumes I-II-III, CUP, 2010 - selected chapters*

*O. A. Westad, The Cold War and the international history of the twentieth century, in The Cambridge History of the Cold War (M.P. Leffler and O. A. Westad eds), volume I, CUP, 2010, pp1-19; J. Gienow-Hecht, Culture and the Cold War in Europe, Ibid, pp398-419); Ludlow, European integration and the Cold War, in The Cambridge History of the Cold War, volume II, CUP, 2010, pp. 179-187; N Cull, Reading, viewing, and tuning in to the Cold, Ibid, pp. 438-459: J-W Müller, The Cold War and the intellectual history of the late twentieth century, in The Cambridge History of the Cold War, vol III, pp. 1-22; Zubok, Soviet foreign policy from détente to Gorbachev, 1975–1985, Ibid, 89-111; J Young, Western Europe and the end of the Cold War, 1979–1989, Ibid, pp. 289-310, J. Levesque, The East European revolutions of 1989, Ibid pp. 311-332;
Modalità verifica apprendimento
Each student is expected to prepare and present one presentation and write one academic paper. The presentation and the final paper cannot be in the same module. Example: a student is giving a presentation in the Africa and Middle East module and is writing a paper in the Asia-Pacific or Transatlantic module. During the final exam students present and defend their final papers. Furthermore, students are examined on the contents of the three above-mentioned modules during the final exams.
Altre informazioni
N.B. Prospective students can view the full syllabus for this course by signing up to receive the WPIR syllabus package.
Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile