The ‘Cold War’ is often seen as a confrontation between two major global powers: the United States and the Soviet Union. But it can only really be understood as a global conflict. This virtual study day considered the Cold War in a global perspective, exploring how deteriorating relations between the United States and the Soviet Union collided with surging anticolonial sentiment across the world. As empires collapsed, their former subjects started to imagine new futures, which challenged the idea of East-West conflict as the only way to organise the world.

The workshop consists of three short talks by specialists from the History department at the University of Southampton, followed by a Q&A session.

This workshop will be of particular interest to students taking the following A-level modules: ‘Mao’s China’, ‘Russia, 1917–1991’, ‘The Cold War in Europe’ and ‘The Making of a Superpower’.