The aim of the course is to introduce the basic concepts and problems associated with the Cold War as formulated in historical and theoretical interpretations, while also highlighting the broader dimensions of this conflict. Important questions will include how the struggles of competing ideo-political projects manifested themselves in different contexts, what was the relationship between politics and different approaches to modernization, and to what extent these approaches underwent self-reflection. At the same time, the course will present the contemporary world order with new political challenges and approaches.

Requirements
Seminar papers

Sylabus
1) The Cold War and the Bipolar World: basic concepts, themes and research questions

2) The origins of the Cold War I: orthodox and revisionist perspectives

3) The origins of Cold War II: post-revisionism, neo-traditionalism and corporatism

4) The Cold War according to international relations theorists

5) Ideology, Propaganda and Foreign Policy

6) The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe

7) The transition to democracy in Central Europe from a theoretical perspective

8) The world order after the fall of communism and the dissolution of the USSR

9) Wars of Terrorism

10) International organisations

11) National referendums and their significance (Czech Republic, Switzerland, United Kingdom...)

Required reading:
Chomsky, N., Deterring Democracy, New York: Hill and Wang, 1992.

Cliff. T., State Capitalism in Russia, London: Pluto Press, 1976.

Gaddis, J. L., The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, Columbia University Press, 2000.

Kennan, G., F., The Sources of Soviet Conduct, in: Graebner, N. A. (ed.), The Cold War: A Conflict of Ideology and Power, Toronto, 1976.

Kolko, G., Confronting the Third World. United States Foreign Policy, 1945-1980, New York: Pantheon Books, 1988.

Morgenthau, H., In Defence of the National Interest, University Press of America, 1982.

Wallerstein, I., Úpadek americké moci, Praha: SLON, 2005.

Westad, O. A., The Global Cold War, Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Williams, W. A., The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, New York: Norton, 1972.

Young, R. J. C., Postcolonialism. An Historical Introduction, Blackwell Publishing, 2001.

Recommended reading:
Feis, H., Containment as a Response to European Crisis, in: Hess, G. R. (ed.), America and Russia: From Cold War Confrontation to Coexistence, New York, 1973.

Feis, H., Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin: The War They Waged and The Peace They Sought, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967.

Freeden, M., Ideology. A very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003.

Gaddis, J. L., We Know Now: Rethinking Cold War History, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.

Grandin, G., The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.

Guzzini, S., Realismus v mezinárodních vztazích a mezinárodní politické ekonomii, Brno: Barrister & Principal, 2004.

Kaldor, M., Imaginary War, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Krejčí, O., Mezinárodní politika, Praha: Ekopress, 2010.

LaFeber, W., America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-2006, 10th Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2008.

Leffler, M. P., For the Soul of Mankind. The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War, New York: Hill and Wang, 2007.

Lundestad, G., The United States and Western Europe since 1945. From "Empire" by Invitation to Transatlantic Drift, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.