Original citation

Aims of the chapter
The aims of this chapter are to:
• explain why different experts failed to predict the end of the Cold War
• outline some alternative theories dealing with the end of the Cold War
• discuss its consequences. 
Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter, and having completed the Essential reading and 
activities, you should be able to:
• explain what is involved for IR in the debate about the end of the Cold 
War
• explain how competing theories of IR explain the end of the Cold War 
differently
• explain how and why the end of the Cold War helped reshape the 
international system
• define the vocabulary terms in bold.
Essential reading
Cox, M. ‘From the Cold War to the world economic crisis’.
Further reading
Bennett, A. ‘The guns that didn’t smoke: ideas and the Soviet non-use of force 
in 1989’, Journal of Cold War Studies 7(2) 2005, pp.81–109. 
Collins, R. ‘Explaining the anti-Soviet revolution by state breakdown theory and 
geopolitical theory’, International Politics 48(4/5) 2011, pp.575–90. 
Cox, M. ‘Another transatlantic split?’ American and European narratives and the 
end of the Cold War’, Cold War History 7(1) 2007, pp.121–46.
Cox, M. ‘The uses and abuses of history: the end of the Cold War and Soviet 
collapse’, International Politics 48(4/5) 2011, pp.627–46.
Cox, M. ‘Why did we get the end of the Cold War wrong?’, British Journal of 
Politics and International Relations 11(2) 2009, pp.161–76.
Deudney. D. and G.J. Ikenberry ‘The international sources of Soviet change’, 
International Security 13(3) 1991/2, pp.74–118. 
English, R.D. ‘Merely an above-average product of the Soviet Nomenklatura? 
Assessing leadership in the Cold War’s end’, International Politics 48(4/5) 
2011, pp.607–26.

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11 Introduction to international relations
40
Risse, T. ‘Ideas, discourse power and the end of the Cold War: 20 years on’, 
International Politics 48(4/5) 2011, pp.591–606. 
Snyder, J. ‘The domestic political logic of Gorbachev’s new thinking in foreign 
policy’, International Politics 48(4/5) 2011, pp.562–74.
Wohlforth, W. ‘No one loves a Realist explanation’, International Politics 48(4/5) 
2011, pp.441–59.