Incluye referencias bibliográficas e índice.
The end of World War II and the dawn of the nuclear age -- The Cold War institutionalized -- The Cold War in Asia: a change of venue -- Confrontation and coexistence -- Decolonization in Asia -- Decolonization in Africa -- The middle East: the Arab-Israeli conflict -- The communist world after Stalin -- The war in Indochina -- Détente and the end of bipolarity -- Problems of economic development in the Third World -- Africa -- Latin America -- The People's Republic of China and Taiwan -- The Indian subcontintent and Southeast Asia -- Japan, Korea, and East Asian economic development -- The globalization of the economy -- Gorbachev's perestroika and the Soviet Union's retreat from empire -- The nuclear arms race -- Political Islam and the Middle East -- September 11 and its consequences -- Epilogue: the end of the postwar age.