PSIR 483 Cold War Syllabus Fall 2018
Gökser Gökçay
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Abstract
This course intends to be a interdisciplinary study of the Cold War. We will examine the Cold War from its origins to its unexpected end. We will cover political, military, cultural, economic and intellectual history of the Cold War by using wide range of primary and secondary sources. The Cold War was a global contest for supremacy between the United States of America (USA) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). It was a " Cold War " because it stopped short of an all-out-war, yet still was a mutual hostility that included covert warfare and war by proxy. It was not only a struggle for physical control of places, but also a competition between contending political and economic systems, which were sharpened by ideological rifts. In this sense, it was one of the defining elements of the international system in the second half of the 20th century. We will analyze this global phenomena chronologically, as well as thematically throughout the semester.
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