THE GLOBAL COLD WAR

Professor Odd Arne Westad is the Elihu Professor of History at Yale University. He specialises in Modern International and Global History with a particular focus on East Asia since the 18th century. His books include Restless Empire: China and the World Since 1750 and The Global Cold War.

Can you explain the term ‘Global Cold War’?

It’s really describing the latter stage of the Cold War, when it reached into every single corner of the globe. I chose that term because I felt that up to when I wrote that book [] in 2005 that almost all of the Cold War literature had been centred either on the two superpowers, the United States and