Professor John W. Young is an expert on post-1945 history of British and US foreign policy (including British relations with European Union), based at the University of Nottingham, UK. Dr John Kent has taught at the Universities of Aberdeen and Strathclyde and is currently an Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics.

• PART 1: THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLD WAR 1945-53 1. Tensions in the Grand Alliance and the Growing Confrontation, 1945-47 2. Two Worlds East and West, 1945-48 3. Empire, Cold War, and Decolonisation, 1945-53 4. The Cold War Intensifies: Containment Superseded, 1948-53PART 2: COLD WAR: CRISES AND CHANGE, 1953-63 5. Soviet-American Relations: Avoiding Hot Water and the Search for Stability 6. Maintaining the Spheres of Influence 7. Fighting the Cold War: The Offensive Strategies 8. Collapsing Empires: The Cold War Battle for Hearts and Minds, 1953-63PART 3: THE COLD WAR OF PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE AND THE RISE OF MULTIPOLARITY 1963-71 9. The Eastern and Western Blocs in the 1960s 10. The Vietnam War 11. Other Regional ConflictsPART 4: THE DÉTENTE ERA, 1972-80  12. An Era of Negotiations, 1972-73 13. Stagflation and the Trials of Détente, 1973-76 14. Détente in Decline, 1977-79 15. The Return to Confrontation, 1979-80PART 5: FROM CONFRONTATION TO COMMUNIST COLLAPSE, 1981-89 16. The 'Second' Cold War, 1981-85 17. Middle East Conflicts in the 1980s 18. Instability in Latin America 19. The Decline of the Cold War, 1985-89PART 6: THE POST-COLD WAR WORLD, 1990-2001 20. Europe and the Former Soviet Union 21. US Predominance and the Search for a Post-Cold War Order 22. Stability and Instability in the Less Developed WorldPART 7: THE AGE OF INSTABILITY AND CONFLICT: TERROR, ECONOMIC CHAOS AND POLITICAL CHANGE, 2001-11 23. The 'War on Terror' and the War in Afghanistan 24. The War in Iraq 25. Economic Problems in the West and the Economic Rise of China in the EastPART 8: THE AGE OF UNCERTAINTY: CHAOS AND CONFUSION IN PART VIII The Age of Uncertainty: Chaos and Confusion in a GLOBALIZED WORLD, 2011-18 26. Conflict and Chaos in the Middle East 27. Threats to the existing Global Order: Instability in the West 28. Threats to the Existing Global Order: Challenges from the East

This is an excellent introduction to international political history since 1945 with a strong focus on the Cold War. The book is clearly structured and rigorously researched. Undergraduate politics students will find it very useful.