A World of Nations: The International Order Since 1945 provides an analytical narrative of the origins, evolution, and end of the Cold War. But the book is more than an account of the long struggle between the two superpowers. It traces the development of regional conflicts—ethnic, religious, cultural, economic, and military—throughout the world and examines the salience of interstate conflicts in the era of globalization. Based on newly accessible historical records, including previously unavailable sources from the former Communist states, the book offers a genuinely international history of this turbulent period for the first time.
When the Cold War came to an abrupt end in 1989-90, some observers prematurely predicted the "end of history" and the emergence of a new world order of peace and stability. Instead, the last decade of the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first have been marked by an explosion of regional conflicts that have little to do with the legacy of the Cold War. A World of Nations follows the roots of these regional conflicts to the early period after WWII, when the attention of the world-and of most historians-was riveted on policymaking in Washington and Moscow, not on smaller nations. While taking account of the phenomenon of globalization and its transnational forces in recent years, this book emphasizes the persistence of the nation-state as the dominant actor on the world stage. A World of Nations is ideal for undergraduate and graduate political science courses in international relations, as well as courses on the history of America, foreign policy, European diplomatic history, history of international relations, and world history.