"History of International Relations and Russian Foreign Policy in the 20th Century." MGIMO Textbook in English Published by British Publisher

18 February 2020

A two-volume edition, edited by MGIMO Rector, Academician Anatoly Torkunov, Professors Boris Martynov and William Wohlforth (Dartmouth College, USA) was published by Cambridge Scholars, a British publisher. The authors are professors and associate professors of MGIMO’s Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy of Russia. The introductory chapter was written by Professor William Wohlforth, a leading researcher at MGIMO’s Institute for International Studies.

You can discover the contents of the volumes, read excerpts and order them online on the publisher's website: volume 1, volume 2.

The publication is the result of a thirty-year tradition of research and teaching the history of international relations in the XX century at MGIMO. Our University is a standard setter in this field and most Russian universities that teach international relations and regional studies follow this program.

The first volume deals with the period going from the end of the 19^th century to 1945, during which there were two world wars, the collapse of empires, the creation and dissolution of coalitions of great powers, the formation of the Yalta-Potsdam world order after World War II.

The second volume analyses international crises, conflicts and cooperation during the Cold War, decolonization processes, the establishment of non-proliferation regimes of weapons of mass destruction and arms control, trends in global economic and technological development, the final détente on a global scale and many other aspects of the interaction between Russia and the leading powers of Europe, Asia and America in the post-war period.

The publication makes a significant contribution to the ongoing discussion of the key junctures in the 20^th-century history and Russia’s role in it. Each chapter of the textbook is followed by revision questions and reading lists.

The publication has a wide target audience, which extends beyond students and university professors in Russia and abroad. Anyone with an interest in the Russian Empire, Soviet Russia and the USSR, Russian approaches to cooperation and rivalry in international affairs, the driving forces of Russian policy and the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of the exceptionally rich history of international relations of the 20^th century will find this book of interest.