Diplomatic History of Europe 1500 - 2000 | Blocs and Decolonization (Lecture 33)

Lecture 33: This lecture covers two processes growing apace in the period from 1949 to 1956. On the one hand, Europe as a key arena of the Cold War stand-off was increasingly polarized into separate blocs to the East and West, configured into the military alliances of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. We discuss challenges to this division of Europe and important exceptions. On the other hand, European powers simultaneously underwent decolonization (a process that could be fast or slow, negotiated or contested), losing most of their once huge imperial holdings around the world, with a profound psychological impact on political self-understanding.

Essential Reading:
Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy, pp. 473–567.

Supplementary Reading:
David Reynolds, “A ‘Special Relationship’? America, Britain and the International Order Since the Second World War,” International Affairs, 62.1 (Winter 1985–1986), pp. 1–20.
Marc Trachtenberg, ed., Between Empire and Alliance: America and Europe during the Cold War.