A Macat analysis of Odd Arne Westad's The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005

The title of Norwegian-born historian Odd Arne Westad's 2005 work - The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times - offers a window into his thesis. Between the end of World War II and the early 1990s, both the Soviet Union and the United States "intervened" (or "offered aid and support to") developing nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In Westad's view, these interventions were more important than events in Europe, where most studies of the Cold War focus. They destabilized the Third World and laid the foundations for contemporary problems and conflicts in the Global South.

Using new archival sources that became available after the fall of communism, The Global Cold War is the first example of the "New" Cold War History school of thought, which links all the international arenas where the struggle took place. An important addition to studies of the Cold War and international history in the 20th century, The Global Cold War helps make sense of conflicts still raging today.

You can find out more about how Westad's ideas have been challenged and applied - and how his work has impacted on thinkers in other academic disciplines - by exploring further in the Macat Library.

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