Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; List of illustrations; List of maps; Foreword; 1 Origins of the Cold War; The orthodox or traditional; The revisionist; The post-revisionist; 2 Cold War: 1949-53; The People's Republic of China; The Korean War; Eastern Europe; Spies; NSC-68; Germany; Culture; 3 To the brink and back: 1953-62; Lost opportunities; Khrushchev takes over; Khrushchev and China; Eisenhower's New Look; The Geneva spirit; Poland and Hungary in 1956; The Berlin crises; The Cuban Missile Crisis; Khrushchev goes; Culture; 4 The US and the Soviet Union in the Third World; The oil weapon; The Soviets rediscover the Third WorldBandung and the Non-aligned Movement; US interventions in the Third World; Iran; Iran's nuclear programme; Syria; Egypt; Africa; Latin America; 5 The Sino-Soviet schism; The Moscow conference; Nuclear weapons; The great proletarian Cultural Revolution; Conflict on the Ussuri; 6 Cuba, Vietnam and Indonesia; Vietnam; Indonesia; 7 The war of cultures; Journalism, architecture and sport; Religion; 8 The Prague Spring; 9 Détente: 1969-79; The Middle East; Ostpolitik; Disarmament; The Helsinki Accord; Nixon and China; Africa; Ethiopia and Somalia; The end of détenteLaos; North Korea; The challenge of Poland; 10 The Islamic challenge: Iran and Afghanistan; Afghanistan; 11 Cambodia-Kampuchea; 12 Post-détente: 1979-85; Secret wars; Soviet youth culture; The Third World; The Iran-Contra affair; Andropov and Reagan: missed opportunities; Oleg Gordievsky; China; The Iran-Iraq War; 13 Gorbachev and the end of the Cold War; Gorbachev and Bush; Gorbachev and Europe: our common home; The home front; Chernobyl; The 19th Party Conference; China; Eastern Europe; Poland; Hungary; The German Democratic Republic; Czechoslovakia; Bulgaria; Romania; AlbaniaYugoslavia; Vietnam; Gorbachev faces more challenges; The Gulf War; Syria; Russia undermines the Union; The last summit; The attempted coup; 14 The judgement; Why did the Cold War between the superpowers emerge in the years to 1953?; Why did the Cold War come to an end?; The Chinese explanation; Near misses; Graphs; 15 The post-Cold War world; Russia; The economy; Foreign policy; Japan; The US; China; The crisis in the West; Religion; Women; Overview; BRICS; China in Africa; Chinese decision making; The Russian and American pivots to Asia; The South China Sea; North Korea; Cuba