Dr Heather Jones

Intended primarily for MA/MSc History of International Relations, MSc Theory and History of International Relations. Also available to students on the LSE – Columbia University Double Degree in International and World History and LSE-PKU Double Degree in MSc International Affairs programmes.

The course is intended for students with or without a detailed knowledge of the international relations of the twentieth century.

The history of international relations from the First World War to the post-Cold War period. Particular stress is placed upon key turning points and on crisis decision-making. Topics examined in this course include German decision-making 1914; Peacemaking, 1919; the Ruhr crisis; Manchurian, Abyssinian and the crises of collective security; the Munich conference; the Nazi-Soviet Pact; the outbreak of the Pacific War; the decision to drop the Atomic bomb; the origins of containment; the decision on Palestine, 1948; the Berlin Blockade; the Korean War; the Suez crisis; the Cuban missile crisis; the US and Vietnam; the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973; Iran, Afghanistan and the fall of détente; the end of the Cold War; the first Gulf War.

The course will be taught in 22 weekly seminars of two-hours duration. Students will be expected to read widely in documentary and other primary sources, and to participate actively in the seminars, which will address the historiographical debates raised in the secondary literature on the topics covered. Students will write four essays. Three of the essays will be up to 3,000 words in length and draw upon primary sources. The fourth will be a shorter timed essay produced in class.

Full bibliographies are provided in the seminars. Students may consult the following introductory accounts: W.R. Keylor, The Twentieth-Century World: an International History; R.W. Boyce and J.A. Maiolo (eds.), The Origins of World War Two: The Debate Continues; T.E. Vadney, The World Since 1945; A. Best, J.M. Hanhimaki, J.A. Mailo, and K.E. Schulze, International History of the Twentieth Century; S.Marks, The Ebbing of European Ascendancy: an International History of the World, 1914-1945; D. Stevenson, 1914-1918: the History of the First World War; Z. Steiner, The Lights that Failed: European International History, 1919-1933;  O.A. Westad, Reviewing the Cold War: Approaches, Interpretation, Theory; D.J. Reynolds, One World Divisible: a Global History since 1945; J.W. Young and J.C. Kent, International Relations since 1945: a Global History.

There will be one three-hour written examination in the ST. Questions on the earlier and the later topics are in separate sections of the examination paper. Candidates will be expected to answer three questions, with at least one taken from each section of the paper.