The Soviet Union played a decisive role in defining the shape and pattern of world politics for nearly fifty years following the end of the Second World War. The Soviet Union in World Politics provides an outline of Soviet foreign policy and international relations from 1945, through the cold war to the break up of the USSR. Geoffrey Roberts considers the global and internal impact of Soviet policies and includes discussion of the origins and development of the cold war; the German question, the Korean War and the Sino-Soviet split; the role of ideology; how the cold war with the USSR ended; and problems of evidence and the new availability of archives. With a useful guide to further reading and a chronology of events, The Soviet Union in World Politics debates key issues of Soviet global and national politics and assesses the impact and legacy of this superpower on the world stage.

1. Perspectives on postwar Soviet foreign policy -- 2. Coexistence, revolution and the cold war, 1945-56 -- 3. Coexistence, crisis and schism: the Khrushchev era, 1956-64 -- 4. The rise and fall of detente, 1964-85 -- 5. From coexistence to collaboration: the Gorbachev revolution, 1985-91 -- 6. Conclusion: the Soviet factor in world politics, 1945-91 -- Biographical notes on major Soviet figures.