“The most lucid, comprehensive, intelligent and reliable account of post-war modern history on the market.” Teaching Politics
“The book compels admiration for its thoroughness, its scope, the masterly ordering of its immense material.” The Sunday Times
The ninth edition of this enormously successful standard work has been expanded to take into account the developments of the last 10 years, including the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sudan; the accelerating emergence of India and China as major powers; the major political developments in Latin America, including the rise and perhaps fall of Chavez in Venezuela; the march of globalisation and the popular protest movements against; the expansion eastwards of the European Union; instability in the Middle East and the question of oil and energy supply.
Marked throughout by Calvocoressi’s characteristic erudition and elegance, World Politics since 1945 is essential reading for those who need to understand the great sweeps of contemporary history
World Politics Since 1945
Peter Calvocoressi
Table of Contents
List of Maps
Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART ONE: THE COLD WAR
1 The Cold War
Beginnings
The division of Germany
Nato and the Soviet empire to the Cuban crisis
The arms race
The perplexities of the United States
The disintegration of the USSR
The limits of superpower
PART TWO: THE FAR EAST
2 Japan
3 China
The triumph of Mao
China and the superpowers
Resurrection
Xinjiang and Tibet
4 Korea
PART THREE: EUROPE REMODELLED
5 Western Europe
Recovery
Franco-German entente
Britain on the edge
European Union (west)
European Union (east – west)
The southern flank
6 Central and eastern Europe
Stalin’s empire
After Stalin
End of empire
7 Yugoslavia and Albania
Federated Yugoslavia
Dissolution: Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Partition: Bosnia-Herzegovina
Kosovo
Macedonia and Albania
Notes A Northern Ireland
B The Basques
C Cyprus
PART FOUR: THE MIDDLE EAST
8 Islam
9 Turkey
10 The Arabs and Israel to the Suez War
The creation of Israel
Arab revolutions
The Suez War
11 From Suez to the death of Nasser
Reassessments
The decline of Nasser and the Six-Day War
12 The destruction of Lebanon
The Yom Kippur War
Civil war
Camp David
Israel’s invasion of Lebanon
13 Towards a Palestinian State
King Hussein’s diplomacy
Israel’s dilemma
14 Iran and Gulf Wars
Oil and nationalism
The shah and the ayatollah
Saddam Hussein
Kuwait and the Gulf War
The destruction of Iraq
15 The Arabian Peninsula
The Saudi kingdom
The southern fringe
Britain and the Persian Gulf
Notes A The Kurds
B The Shi’ites
C Sectarian violence
PART FIVE: SOUTH ASIA
16 The Indian subcontinent
The first partition
Northern borders: Tibet, Kashmir, the Himalayan states
The second partition
17 The Indo-Chinese peninsula
18 South-east Asia and ASEAN
19 Afghanistan
Notes A Central Asia
B Sri Lanka
PART SIX: AFRICA
20 General
21 North Africa
The Maghrib
Libya and Chad
22 West Africa
Independence
The coastal loop from Senegal to Benin
Landlocked: Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger
Nigeria
23 Central Africa
Congo-Zaire-Congo
Rwanda and Burundi
West Central Africa
24 East Africa
Sudan
Darfur
The Horn
Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya
25 Africa’s deep south
The legacy of Cecil Rhodes
Mozambique-Angola-Namibia
South Africa
26 Russians, Cubans, Chinese
Notes A The Malagasy Republic and the Indian Ocean
B Botswana, Lesotho, Ngwane
C The Homelands or Bantustans
PART SEVEN: LATIN AMERICA
27 South America
General
28 Central America
29 Cuba and the Caribbean
Note Guyana and Surinam
PART EIGHT: WORLD ORDER
30 World Order
Preventing wars
Preventing economic disasters
Neutralism and realignment
Poverty
Notes A Canada
B Very small states
C The Poles
D The law of the sea
APPENDIX: THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Index
Biography
Peter Calvocoressi
