History of International Relations from 1945 Social Sciences Program Fall 2024 Semester - Budapest

The course will give an exciting opportunity to the students to study the history of international relations in the Cold War period on the basis of recently declassified archival documents with the help of one of the most experienced researchers in the field. During the course we will examine the origins and the unfolding of the Cold War. The détente process emerging in the middle of the nineteen-fifties will be presented by a new approach as well as the analysis of the different types of international crises during the Cold War will show that some of the most spectacular crises of the era were in reality not genuine East?West conflicts.
Due attention will be paid to NATO and the Warsaw Pact as institutions of foreign policy coordination, as well as to the German question and European security. The last classes will be devoted to the analysis of the transformation of East?West relations in the Gorbachev era and to the end of the Cold War. The course will be based predominantly on the findings of the "new Cold War history" with a special focus on the policy of the Eastern Bloc. Besides studying readings from the most up to date literature on the topic, during the course students will have access to published and unpublished archival documents from both sides of the Cold
War divide.

Corvinus University of Budapest awards credits based on the ECTS system (2 ECTS credits equals 1 U.S. credit therefore, 6 ECTS credits is equivalent to 3 U.S. credits). At Corvinus University of Budapest, all classes meet for a minimum of 180 minutes per week. Contact hours are calculated through a combination of lecture hours and outside activities which can include (workshops, seminars, fieldwork activities, guest lectures, and independent work) therefore, contact hours may vary on syllabi