This course will discuss the main events and the international transformations that occurred starting from the end of World War II to the present day. The course will focus on the period of the Cold War and of the opposite Blocs division, paying attention in particular to the decolonization in Asia and Africa and the events in the Middle East. The consequences on an international level of the situation created after the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the end of communism in the Soviet Union and the other Eastern European Countries will also be analyzed. The period examined begins with the year 1945, with references to the causes of the events in the previous years, between the end of the ’800 and the beginning of the ’900.
The topics covered will include:
- the new international system following 1945 and the Cold War;
- the opposite Blocs division, USA and USSR;
- the decolonization in Asia and Africa;
- the Chinese revolution and the birth of the People’s Republic of China (1949);
- the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Palestinian issue;
- the Non-Aligned Movement and the second phase of the Decolonization;
- the ’60, the Peacheful Co-Existence, the Vietnam War, the social unrest;
- the Kippur War (1973) and the international economic crisis;
- the Middle East: the Iranian Revolution (1979);
- the deindustrialization and the international economic transformations; Japan and the Asian Tigers;
- the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) the end of communism in Eastern Europe, the crisis and dissolution of the USSR;
- globalization of the economy, growth of China and the international relationships;
- 9/11, global terrorism and new conflicts in the Middle East;
- the financial and economic crisis of 2008 and its consequences;
- the arab spring (2011) and the growth of islamist terrorism;
- European Union: nationalism and anti-Europeanism