Much has already been written about the effects of the changes of the Cold War on conflict. The ongoing disengagement of East and West from bipolar Cold-War politics has resulted in an unstable international political situation which is characterized by regional conflicts. Most analyses now concentrate on the consequences for Europe and the former communist Central and East European states. This book, however, explores the effects for the Third World. The contributors provide major theoretical analyses of the causes of conflict in developing countries. Four main factors are distinguished: the processes of state-formation and nation-building; the rise or return of ethnicity and nationalism; socio-economic factors; and the armaments-conflict nexus. The volume also provides in-depth regional analyses, as well as policy perspectives on the issue of conflict and development.

How did the conflict between Vietnamese nationalists and French colonial rulers erupt into a major Cold War struggle between communism and Western liberalism? To understand the course of the Vietnam wars, it is essential to explore the connections between events within Vietnam and global geopolitical currents in the decade after the Second World War. In this illuminating work, leading scholars examine various dimensions of the struggle between France and Vietnamese revolutionaries that began in 1945 and reached its climax at Dien Bien Phu. Several essays break new ground in the study of the Vietnamese revolution and the establishment of the political and military apparatus that successfully challenged both France and the United States. Other essays explore the roles of China, France, Great Britain, and the United States, all of which contributed to the transformation of the conflict from a colonial skirmish to a Cold War crisis. Taken together, the essays enable us to understand the origins of the later American war in Indochina by positioning Vietnam at the center of the grand clash between East and West and North and South in the middle years of the twentieth century.

This thesis analyses the making of West German policy towards the Portuguese dictatorship during the governments led by Willy Brandt and Marcelo Caetano, from 1968 until the dictatorship's downfall on 25 April 1974. This case study sheds new light on the interaction between the Cold War and colonial politics, particularly on the multilateral dimension of the process of Portuguese resistance to decolonisation. Although the starting point is the bilateral relationship between the Federal Republic of Germany and Portugal, this thesis takes a multifaceted approach to the topic. It examines the role of various external and internal forces pushing for change and continuity in Bonn's policy towards Lisbon. Research demonstrates that not only did that policy become a contentious issue internationally, it also polarised West Germany's society, parliament and different sections of Bonn's social-liberal coalition government. Taking this into account, my work covers the diplomatic, economic and military areas of the relations between the two states. It also addresses the parallel ties between the German Social-Democratic Party and the opposition to the dictatorship, including the Portuguese socialists and the African liberation movements. The thesis argues that, despite many impulses and pressures to assertively confront the Portuguese dictatorship's refusal to decolonise and democratise, West German policy towards the Caetano regime remained essentially cooperative, even if becoming increasingly ambiguous over time. That option reflected the geopolitical and conceptual contradictions between adopting a more aggressive policy towards Portugal and defending Bonn's contemporary policy of rapprochement with Eastern Europe (neue Ostpolitik). Thus this thesis illustrates the interconnectedness between the global Cold War framework and the perpetuation of colonialism in Africa.

The wars of decolonization fought by European colonial powers after 1945 had their origins in the fraught history of imperial domination, but were framed and shaped by the emerging politics of the Cold War. In all the counter-insurgencies mounted against armed nationalist risings in this period, the European colonial powers employed locally recruited militias – styled as ‘loyalists’ – to fight their ‘dirty wars’. These loyalist histories have been neglected in the nationalist narratives that have dominated the post-decolonization landscape, and this book offers the first comparative assessment of the role played by these allies at the end of empire. Their experience illuminates the deeper ambiguities of the decolonization story: some loyalists were subjected to vengeful violence at liberation; others actually claimed the victory for themselves and seized control of the emergent state; while others still maintained a role as fighting units into the Cold War. The overlap between the history of decolonization and the emergence of the Cold War is a central theme in the studies presented here. The collection discusses the categorization of these ‘irregular auxiliary’ forces after 1945, and presents seven case studies from five European colonialisms, covering nine former colonies – Portugal (Angola), the Netherlands (Indonesia), France (Algeria), Belgium (Congo) and Britain (Cyprus, Kenya, Aden, South Yemen and Oman). This book was originally published as a special issue of the International History Review.

Since 1945, the average length of civil wars has increased three-fold. What explains this startling fact? Hironaka points to the crucial role of the international community in propping up new and weak states that resulted from the postwar decolonization movement. These states are prone to conflicts and lack the resources to resolve them decisively.

The Oxford Handbook of the Cold War offers a broad reassessment of the period war based on new conceptual frameworks developed in the field of international history. Nearing the 25th anniversary of its end, the cold war now emerges as a distinct period in twentieth-century history, yet one which should be evaluated within the broader context of global political, economic, social, and cultural developments. The editors have brought together leading scholars in cold war history to offer a new assessment of the state of the field and identify fundamental questions for future research. The individual chapters in this volume evaluate both the extent and the limits of the cold war's reach in world history. They call into question orthodox ways of ordering the chronology of the cold war and also present new insights into the global dimension of the conflict. Even though each essay offers a unique perspective, together they show the interconnectedness between cold war and national and transnational developments, including long-standing conflicts that preceded the cold war and persisted after its end, or global transformations in areas such as human rights or economic and cultural globalization. Because of its broad mandate, the volume is structured not along conventional chronological lines, but thematically, offering essays on conceptual frameworks, regional perspectives, cold war instruments and cold war challenges. The result is a rich and diverse accounting of the ways in which the cold war should be positioned within the broader context of world history.

The Oxford Handbook of the Cold War offers a broad reassessment of the period war based on new conceptual frameworks developed in the field of international history. Nearing the 25th anniversary of its end, the cold war now emerges as a distinct period in twentieth-century history, yet one which should be evaluated within the broader context of global political, economic, social, and cultural developments. The editors have brought together leading scholars in cold war history to offer a new assessment of the state of the field and identify fundamental questions for future research. The individual chapters in this volume evaluate both the extent and the limits of the cold war's reach in world history. They call into question orthodox ways of ordering the chronology of the cold war and also present new insights into the global dimension of the conflict. Even though each essay offers a unique perspective, together they show the interconnectedness between cold war and national and transnational developments, including long-standing conflicts that preceded the cold war and persisted after its end, or global transformations in areas such as human rights or economic and cultural globalization. Because of its broad mandate, the volume is structured not along conventional chronological lines, but thematically, offering essays on conceptual frameworks, regional perspectives, cold war instruments and cold war challenges. The result is a rich and diverse accounting of the ways in which the cold war should be positioned within the broader context of world history.