Università Roma Tre

The course intends to offer a general survey of the evolution of the international system since the end of the Cold War. After discussing the main historical interpretations of the causes of the Soviet collapse, the first part of the course will focus on the crises of the 1990s (Iraq, Yugoslavia, Somalia and Rwanda), the repeated failures of the UN, and the US and European search for a new international security paradigm. The second part of the course will look at the impact of 9/11 as well as at the war on terror, considering their long term impact on the hegemonic position of the US. It will also discuss the growing role of such emerging powers as China and India. Finally, the third part of the course looks at such recent events as the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program, the Arab Springs and their consequences, the paralysis in the EU, and the crises in Ukraine and Syria.

CONTENT:

PART I – Introduction, historical controversies and the major features of the early post-cold war era.

Week 1
Introduction and description of the course. The search for new interpretive paradigms: the end of the Cold War or the triumph of globalization ?

Week 2
The rise of US hegemony and the search for a new Europe: the Kuwait war and the Maastricht negotiations

Weeks 3-4
The crises of the early 1990s: Yugoslavia, Somalia and Ruanda. The failure of assertive multilateralism and the search for alternatives. Contending US and EU security models

PART II
The war on terror and the rise of a multipolar system

Week 5
The drift towards US unilateralism: the Kosovo war and its implications for NATO and European security. The evolution of Russian foreign policy

Nuclear proliferation and arms control after the end of the Cold War: the North Korean crisis, containing Iraq, and the AQ Khan network

MIDTERM EXAM APRIL 10

Week 6
The impact of 9/11, the war in Afghanistan and the 2003 Iraq crisis.

Week 7
The rise of China and India and its impact on the international system. Will Asia return to the center of the international system?

PART III
What next?

Week 8
The erosion of US hegemony? The crisis in the Greater Middle East, 2003-2010 and the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia. The consolidation of the EU – and its stalemate. The Arab Springs and their aftermath. The Negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program

Week 9
2014-2015: the unraveling of the post-cold war order?

Week 10
Seminar –

Week 11
Class Presentations

Week 11
Class Presentations

Week 13
Class Presentations

REQUIRED READINGS:

William Keylor, The Twentieth-Century World and Beyond: An International History since 1900 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012 – paperback edition), Part Three, From Cold War to New World Disorder, 1985-2010, chapter 16-22

Or

John Young and John Kent, International Relations Since 1945, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), Part VI, The Post-Cold War World 1990-2000, and Part VII, The Age of Terror, 2001-2012, pp. 437-624


For the in class discussions, students will have to read the following essays:

Cox, Michael. "Another Transatlantic Split? American and European Narratives and the End of the Cold War." Cold War History 7, no. 1 (2007/02/01 2007): 121-46.
Glaurdic', Josip. "Response to Ingrao and Emmert." East European Politics & Societies 24, no. 2 (May 1, 2010 2010): 316-20.
———. "Review Essay: Charles Ingrao and Thomas A. Emmert, Eds. Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies: A Scholars’ Initiative. West Lafayette, In: Purdue University Press." East European Politics & Societies 24, no. 2 (2010): 294-309.
Ikenberry, G. John. "The Illusion of Geopolitics." Foreign Affairs 93, no. 3 (2014): 80-90.
Ingrao, Charles, and Thomas A. Emmert. "Response to Josip Glaurdic's Review." East European Politics & Societies 24, no. 2 (May 1, 2010 2010): 310-15.
Leffler, Melvyn P. "The Foreign Policies of the George W. Bush Administration: Memoirs, History, Legacy." Diplomatic History 37, no. 2 (April 1, 2013): 190-216.
Mead, Walter Russell. "The Return of Geopolitics." Foreign Affairs 93, no. 3 (2014): 69-79.
Rehman, Iskander. "Keeping the Dragon at Bay: India's Counter-Containment of China in Asia." Asian Security 5, no. 2 (2009/06/05 2009): 114-43.
Richardson, Paul. "‘Blue National Soil’ and the Unwelcome Return of ‘Classical’ Geopolitics." Global Change, Peace & Security 27, no. 2 (2015/05/04 2015): 229-36.
Shifrinson, Joshua R. "Deal or No Deal?: The End of the Cold War and the U.S. Offer to Limit Nato Expansion." International Security 40, no. 4 (2016): 7-44.
Sarotte, Mary Elise. "A Broken Promise?", 90-97: Foreign Affairs, 2014.
Schake, Kori. "Nato after the Cold War, 1991–1995: Institutional Competition and the Collapse of the French Alternative." Contemporary European History 7, no. 03 (1998): 379-407.
Spohr, Kristina. "Germany, America and the Shaping of Post-Cold War Europe: A Story of German International Emancipation through Political Unification, 1989–90." Cold War History 15, no. 2 (2015/04/03 2015): 221-43.


Primary sources:

1. The Diary of Anatoly S. Chernyaev,
First instalment, 1985
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB192/

Second Instalment, 1986
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB220/

Third Instalment, 1987-1988
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB250/

Fourth Instalment, 1989
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB275/

Fifth Instalment, 1990
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB317/

Sixth and final instalment, 1991
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB345/


2. Documents on the end of the Cold War
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collection/37/end-of-the-cold-war


3. The Road to Dayton. US Diplomacy and the Bosnian Peace Process, May- December 1995
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB171/index.htm

4. The US and the Genocide in Rwanda: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB119/index.htm, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB117/index.htm, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB53/press.html
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB500/

5. The Brahimi Report and the Future of UN Peace Operations
http://www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/brahimi_report.shtml

6. THE IRAQ WAR -- PART I: The U.S. Prepares for Conflict, 2001. National Security Archive Electronic Briefing book No. 326 http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB326/index.htm
THE IRAQ WAR -- PART II: Was There Even a Decision?
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 328
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB328/index.htm
THE IRAQ WAR -- PART III: Shaping the Debate
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 330
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB330/index.htm

http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB418/


RECOMMENDED READINGS:

Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier, America between the Wars: from 11/9 to 9/11 (New York: Public Affairs, 2008)

Warren I. Cohen, America’s Falling Empire. U.S. Foreign Relations since the End of the Cold War (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006)

Philip H. Gordon, and Jeremy Shapiro. Allies at War: America, Europe and the Crisis Over Iraq (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004)

Jolyon Howorth, Security and Defence Policy in the European Union (London: Palgrave/ Macmillan, 2014)

Marc Lynch, The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East (New York: Public Affairs, 2013)

Richard Rhodes, The Twilight of the Bombs- Recent Challenges, New Dangers, and the Prospects for a World Without Nuclear Weapons (New York: Knopf, 2010)

William Shawcross, Deliver us from Evil. Warlords and Peacekeepers in a World of Endless Conflict (London: Bloomsbury, 2001)

Robert G. Sutter, Chinese Foreign Relations: Power and Policy since the Cold War (New York, Rowman and Littlefield, 2009)

Ashley J. Tellis, Travis Tanner and Jessica Keough (eds.), Asia Responds to its Rising Powers. China and India. Strategic Asia 2011-2012 (Seattle and Washington: NBR, 2011)

David S. Yost,, NATO’s Balancing Act (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2014)