International Relations Since 1945

692 Pages·2013·6.152 MB·English

by  John W. Young, John Kent

International Relations Since 1945
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International Relations

Since 1945
A Global History
John W. Young and John Kent
SECOND EDITION
1
3

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp ,
United Kingdom
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© John W. Young and John Kent 2013
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First edition copyright 2003
Impression: 1
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Preface to the Second Edition

For this new edition we have largely adhered to the same approach as in the fi rst edition, but we
have moved on far beyond the Cold War, adding a complete new section on the world since the
events of 9/11. We have also taken the opportunity to clear up some textual problems in Sections
I to VI, to trim back some of the material there, as well as to add some factual and interpretative
material where this seems useful.
Preface to the First Edition
This book is an attempt to provide a general account of the nature and development of the post-
war international system with the origins, nature, and end of the Cold War at its centre. The ap-
proach is a historical one but one which hopes to off er something of value to general International
Relations students interested in the development and interpretation of the post-1945 international
system from a sounder empirical foundation. In particular the book seeks to examine Cold War
controversies in a way which will stimulate debate and produce some reinterpretations. It implicitly
challenges the importance of realism and suggests that realism is an unsuitable tool for understand-
ing and explaining the Cold War and its end because it ignores the importance of domestic infl u-
ences on foreign policy. The book makes no claim to contribute to historical sociology but it does
attempt to suggest that domestic aff airs, ideologies, and culture have signifi cant connections to
international events and are infl uences on the events described and analysed here. In particular that
it is inappropriate to consider the post-war international system in isolation from the nature of the
domestic state, the role of elites, and their use of ideas and ideologies.
Although world politics will be examined throughout from an essentially historical perspective
rather than in terms of any particular theory of international relations the aim is not simply to tell
what happened but to provide overall analysis and broad interpretations of events. Theories rest
more securely on detailed empirical understanding, and good historical methodology does not ne-
glect theoretical concepts or fail to deal with causation. Yet we recognise that it may not be possible
to explain fully the causes of the changes in the international system after 1945, either in general or
specifi c terms.
Given the work available on the post-1945 period we set out specifi cally to provide a book which
incorporates some new ways of synthesizing complicated material and which also adds new and
controversial interpretations for consideration while attempting to defi ne the Cold War more pre-
cisely. For those teachers eager to get students thinking for themselves and contributing ideas to
seminars and tutorials this should be a provocative book which outlines diff erent ideas as well as
providing basic information. As such it should off er something to students seeking to discover and
vi Preface to the First Edition
refl ect on new interpretations rather than simply discovering the facts and the so-called ‘correct’
explanations. Special attention is placed on new interpretations of the Cold War and its various
phases while trying to link its development to a number of military and economic themes. Not least
because a feature of the Cold War on both sides of the Iron Curtain has been the expenditure of
vast resources on making people think in particular ways about many aspects of international rela-
tions; new interpretations of the Cold War’s development are especially needed now it has ended.
It is only by refl ecting more fundamentally about the ascribed nature of the Cold War that we can
begin to understand just why it ended so dramatically.
By placing more emphasis on controversies and challenging some conventional interpretations,
the book hopes to off er a basis for debate and discussion in courses associated with the nature
and development of the post-Second World War international system. A more analytical overview
defi ning key issues precedes the more detailed coverage in the six chronological sections. This is
intended to reinforce some of the key questions for debate which are also featured in much of the
main text. Where there is repetition of interpretation it is hoped that students will benefi t from
being able to consider again some of the key issues raised. Both general and more specifi cally fo-
cused chronologies are included along with considerable cross-referencing. Where terms are used
which may be unfamiliar and require explanation we hope to have provided this. Interpretations are
not usually presented as defi nitive and the intention is often to present alternative views especially
where detailed evidence cannot be produced. Text boxes will be found throughout, especially in the
earlier sections, to provide details of important documents, interesting meetings and memoranda,
summaries of debates, or interpretations and brief biographies of key fi gures. They will also be
used to provide glimpses of the kind of ideas which are unusual, less well known and hopefully
interesting and revealing.
As with the interpretations there will be some variety in the way specifi c themes are treated in
diff erent chronological periods which inevitably produce diff erent issues and more or less debate.
The variety should again serve to encourage the use of a general text as a means of thinking about
the post-war world while discovering what happened. Some aspects of it will be covered in more
detail than others and the constraints of space inevitably require that some topics which others
might deem important will not be featured at all. The changes in the international economic order,
the importance of the end of the European and Soviet empires, and links between the developed
and less developed worlds will be touched on. And we hope to provide glimpses of all areas of the
world and of the eff ects of international changes in and after the Cold War which have for many
years been felt in both global and regional contexts.
We would like to express our thanks in helping to prepare this manuscript for publication to
Lindsey Kent and Martine Langer and especially to Janet Smith for her extensive and excellent typ-
ing and to Helen Adams for having to confront a very demanding manuscript.
New to this Edition
A new fi nal section covering the period between 2001 and 2012 adds three new chapters on terror-
ism, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the rise of major new powers.
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Outline Contents
List of Abbreviations xvii
List of Maps xix
Introduction: Understanding the Cold War xxiii
PART I: The Origins and Development of the Cold War, 1945–53 1
1. Tensions in the Grand Alliance and Growing Confrontation, 1945–7 23
2. Two Worlds East and West, 1945–8 42
3. Empire, Cold War, and Decolonization, 1945–53 62
4. The Cold War Intensifies: Containment Superseded, 1948–53 80
PART II: Cold War: Crises and Change, 1953–63 105
5. Soviet–American Relations: Avoiding Hot War and the Search for Stability 119
6. Maintaining the Spheres of Influence 133
7. Fighting the Cold War: The Offensive Strategies 151
8. Collapsing Empires: The Cold War Battle for Hearts and Minds, 1953–63 176
PART III: The Cold War of Peaceful Coexistence and the Rise of
Multipolarity, 1963–71 201
9. The Eastern and Western Blocs in the 1960s 213
10. The Vietnam War 233
11. Other Regional Conflicts 254