Handbook

This course examines the foreign policies of major powers, including the United States and China, from 1945 to the present. It focuses on the problems, threats, and challenges these powers faced during the cold war and following the collapse of the old bipolar system. The course assesses how these powers perceived these problems, threats, and challenges and how they responded to them. In doing so, it discusses the processes and the actors involved in foreign policy-making at the national level. In addition, this course analyses the geopolitical, military, economic and domestic constraints under which these powers operated, as well as the economic and military capabilities they relied on to achieve their foreign policy objectives. Moreover, it considers significant developments in 20th-century world politics, such as the cold war, decolonization, conflicts in the developing world, and contemporary trends following the end of bipolarity. This course is specifically designed for postgraduate students interested in contemporary diplomacy and statecraft, who seek to understand how the world’s major powers have pursued their national interests in a complex post-war international system.