Robert J. McMahon is the Ralph D. Mershon Distinguished Professor of History at Ohio State University and past president of the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations. He is the author of numerous books, including The Limits of Empire: The United States and Southeast Asia since World War II and The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction.

• Introduction ; Chapter 1 The Cold War and the Middle East- Salim Yaqub ; Chapter 2 What Was Containment?: Short and Long Answers from the Americas- Greg Grandin ; Chapter 3 Southeast Asia in the Cold War- Bradley R. Simpson ; Chapter 4 South Asia and the Cold War- David C. Engerman ; Chapter 5 China, the Third World, and the Cold War- Chen Jian ; Chapter 6 Africa's Cold War- Jeffrey James Byrne ; Chapter 7 Decolonization, the Cold War, and the Post-Columbian Era- Jason C. Parker ; Chapter 8 The Rise and Fall of Non-Alignment- Mark Atwood Lawrence ; Chapter 9 Culture, the Cold War, and the Third World- Andrew J. Rotter ; Chapter 10 The Histories of African Americans' Anti-colonialism during the Cold War- Carol Anderson ; Chapter 11 The War on the Peasant: The United States and the Third World- Nick Cullather ; Epilogue The Cold War and the Third World- Odd Arne Westad

helps clarify the complex interrelationship of the Soviet-US conflict while addressing many parts of the world that have usually been left out of the discussion of the Cold War. The book contributes much to the understanding of the modern world in the late 20th century ... Recommended.