The Cold War in Asia ((3))

Catalog description

The Cold War is commonly presented as a Soviet-American confrontation of ideas, spanning the second half of the twentieth century, which only occasionally descended into violent conflict. From Asia, however, the Cold War looks very different. By examining the Cold War period from the perspectives of East, South, and Southeast Asia, this course challenges the traditional paradigm of a Soviet-American bipolar confrontation, to instead explore how Asia shaped the Cold War, and how the Cold War shaped Asia. Alongside our exploration of the Cold War in Asia's hot wars, diplomatic exchanges, and seminal events, we will consider a set of ideas central to the Cold War as an everyday, lived experience for ordinary people in Asia - among them, anti-colonialism, decolonization, race, postcolonial development, modernization, and nationalism. In addition to reading scholarly analyses of the period, we will examine a number of primary sources demonstrating the Cold War's extensive reach into everyday Asian life, including dramatic plays, comic books, and letters. (Asia/War and Freedom)