HST3144   Ending the Cold War   (20 credits)

Description

Based upon a wealthy variety of primary sources recently released and for its most part digitalized and/or published, this course will explore why and how the apparently secure world collapse in 1989. Topics will include: Germany, Ostpolitk and CSCE; Superpower détente; The Fall of Détente: Afghanistan and Euromissiles; Reagan, SDI and Third World Interventionism; The Polish Crisis, 1980-1981; the Second Cold War and intra-German rapprochement; the Soviet Union's systemic crisis and imperial overstretch; Gorbachev Political Thought and Reform; Gorbachev, Reagan and Nuclear Weapons; Gorbachev's Eastern European policies; The Road to Maastricht and EU.

Reading List