This course explores some of the major ideas and events that have shaped world history since 1945 and asks: Which are stronger, the forces for world
unity or the forces for fragmentation? The first half of the course looks at the immediate post-war period. This is the time when Europe declines, European colonies become new nations and the United States of America (U.S.A.) gains power. It is the time of the Cold War when the world is divided by 'an iron curtain' between western capitalist states led by the U.S.A. and eastern bloc communist states centered on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The second half of the course looks at the world after the collapse of communism. We study the global impacts of the struggle for resources and the increasing prominence of terrorism in the modern world.