In the last decade scholars have returned to the period and the problems of the Cold War with fresh eyes. Upsetting traditional narratives, new approaches more capaciously address the kaleidoscopic range of actors, institutions, and governments that drove an era of dramatic change across the globe. Much greater attention has been paid to Second World-Third World connections, to environment and materiality, and the circulation of expertise, resources, and commerce across borders. We have revised internal periodization, and foregrounded enduring dynamics of development, modernization, and colonialism that predated and outlasted the Cold War. As the Russia-Ukraine War in Europe unsettles and galvanizes the post-Cold War political order, this series asks how the present informs our evolving understanding of this recent past.  

Central to new scholarship is an appreciation for the global ramifications of the geopolitical contest, the overarching importance of decolonization, the uneven pivot to post-industrial modernization strategies, and emergent planetary solidarities in the face of environmental degradation and the threat of nuclear war. Grounded in perspectives on and from the socialist bloc, the series spotlights innovative work from both up-and-coming scholars and those who have long shaped the field.