HY463 examines the origins of the Cold War and the dynamics of its rise during the period from World War II to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. It looks at long-term trends as well as specific events in order to elucidate how the Cold War originated and evolved. It deals with the Cold War as international history, covering the period from a wide variety of geographical and national angles: while some meetings necessarily centre on an individual state or a bilateral relationship, there will be others that deal with a wider region or with global trends. Intellectually, therefore, the course stresses the transformation of the field from the study of (primarily American) national foreign policy to a broader international approach.