International Relations Since 1945: A Global History

Contemporary Review, Oct, 2004

International Relations Since 1945: A Global History John W. Young and John Kent. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]21.99. 743 pages. ISBN 0-19-878164-4. This study is arranged in six parts. The first two, written by John Kent, cover events from the end of the Second World War to the death of Stalin and the end of the Korean War in 1953 and then the decade up to the Test Ban Treaty and Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

John Young examines the aftermath of Kennedy's death to the agreement to hold a European security conference, the Indo-Pakistan War and the end of the Bretton Woods system in 1971. He then considers detente with the Soviet Union and China in 1972 to its suspension by Carter, the death of Tito and the Solidarity movement in Poland in 1980. The arrival of Reagan in 1981 to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 provides the next part. Finally, he scrutinises the post-Cold War decade, 1990-2000. Each part is divided into manageable chapters and sub-sections. The book adopts the practices of American textbooks: two-column pages, helpful chronologies and box inserts on key figures, issues and controversies. There are footnotes and an analytical bibliography. As a textbook it is a qualified success. While the content is admirable, the layout is rather dull. The inserts sometimes sprawl across two pages. This rather defeats the purpose of such a device, which is surely to offer a pithy sketch of a particular topic. Most disappointing is the absence of maps and any kind of illustration. (M.F.H.)