Course Catalogue

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The end of the Cold War led to the publication of unprecedented quantities of primary source material related to Soviet foreign and security policy in English translation. With a special focus on Eurasia, Africa, and Central America (as opposed to the United States or Western Europe) and with emphasis on the insights to be gained from African, Russian, Ukrainian and Chinese scholarship, this course seeks to examine the history of the Cold War from a decolonising perspective, as well as considering the legacies of the Cold War era for Russian security policies today.

13x 1hr lectures and 7x 1hr seminars over 10 weeks as scheduled in My Campus. This is one of the Honours options in History and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into History, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes

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The standard assessments for this course are:

■ Online 7-day exam (50%)

■ 2,500-word essay (35%)

■ 10-minute seminar presentation (15%)

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available:

■ There are no alternatives to the exam or essay, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustments (students should follow the usual process for extensions).

■ Recorded presentation as alternative to seminar presentation.

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.

This course aims to:

■ Introduce students to the concept of security dilemmas, in a manner that increases their capacity to understand government policy making in general and foreign policy formation in particular.

■ Introduce students to non-Western perspectives on security and international affairs.

■ Show students how a professional historian working in twentieth century history works and how archival revelations change and alter understandings of the field.

■ Encourage students to develop imagination, skills and self-discipline required to master a similarly demanding brief in future, whether in historical research with speciality on the Cold War, or in any sphere of employment where these qualities are valuable.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Analyse and explain the linkages between perceptions of national security, military modernization, and domestic reform in the period and region concerned.

■ Analyse the corresponding dilemmas of money, material resources, space and time in a conceptual framework.

■ Express in verbal and written formats an appreciation of the temporary as opposed to permanent operating factors that have shaped the formulation of Russian/Soviet national security policy.