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Based on the Dublin Descriptors, students should achieve the following outcomes at the end of the course:

1. Knowledge and understanding: the ability to understand the evolution, successes, and failures of international relations between the 20th and 21st centuries, connecting them to the relevant national and international context, and therefore to the political, economic, social, cultural, and ideological events underlying their development;
2. Applied knowledge and understanding: the ability to use acquired skills to reconstruct the historical evolution of the international system and relations between states, identifying strengths and weaknesses, key players and events, continuities and ruptures;
3. Making judgments: the ability to develop critical thinking on the development and changes in the international system between the 20th and 21st centuries;
4. Communication skills: the ability to participate in public debate on pressing international issues (including, but not limited to, the war in the Middle East, the conflict in Ukraine, Trump's diplomatic and geopolitical posture, the emergence of new powers, the future of the EU and NATO), identifying the historical origins and evolution of diplomatic issues and similarities and differences between past and present;
5. Learning skills: the ability to continue learning independently, including by identifying texts and sources that illustrate the evolution of international relations between the 20th and 21st centuries.

Recommended.

For the purposes of project preparation and ongoing assessments, students who have achieved at least 70% attendance at the end of the course are considered attending.

• Antonio Varsori, Storia internazionale. Dal 1919 a oggi, il Mulino, Bologna 2020, pp. 520, ISBN 978-88-15-28485-3;
  
• Lecture notes provided by the teacher can be downloaded from Studium.unict.

For those attending, knowledge will be assessed through exercises, tests, and workshops during class. At the end of the course, students will be asked to develop a research project (written and individually or in groups), the presentation of which will be an integral part of the final assessment. The instructor will provide in-depth materials for the project and ongoing methodological support during its development.

Non-attending students will present the full syllabus during the final exam.

Grading will follow the following scheme:

Failed

Significant deficiencies and significant inaccuracies in knowledge and understanding of the topics covered.

Insufficient analytical and synthesis skills.

Frequent generalizations.

Inappropriate use of references.

18-20

Imperfections in knowledge and understanding of the topics covered, which are only at a sufficient level.

Analytical and synthesis skills are not sufficiently refined.

Use of references is only slightly appropriate.

21-23

Slightly more than adequate knowledge of the topics covered.

Coherent arguments, although not particularly original.

Appropriate use of references, at the standard level.

24-26

Good analytical and synthesis skills.

Coherent presentation of the arguments.

Appropriate use of references, at the standard level.

27-29

More than good knowledge of the topics covered.

Remarkable analytical and synthesis skills.

Use of references beyond the standard, through in-depth analysis of the topics.

30-30L

Excellent knowledge and understanding of the topics covered.

Remarkable analytical and synthesis skills.

Use of references well beyond the standard, through significant in-depth analysis.

• The Paris Peace Conference and its immediate consequences in Europe
• The fate of the German colonies and the mandate system
• The partition of the Ottoman Empire and the settlement of the Middle East
• The Greco-Turkish conflict and the birth of the Turkish Republic
• The question of reparations
• From the Genoa Conference to the Rapallo Agreements, to the occupation of the Ruhr
• The Franco-German rapprochement and the illusion of "collective security"
• The League of Nations
• The Locarno Agreements
• The contradictory international role of the Soviet Union in the 1920s
• The Young Plan and the apogee of collective security
• The failure of an international order: towards a new European war (1929-1939)
• The economic crisis of 1929 and the collapse of the Versailles system
• The first failures of the League of Nations: Manchukuo and disarmament negotiations
• Hitler's rise to power and the transformation of the international landscape up to the Spanish Civil War
• The evolution of international events in Asia and Africa between the Two World Wars
• The Ethiopian War and the Failure of the League of Nations
• French Weakness and the British Policy of Appeasement
• The Spanish Civil War
• British Policy of Appeasement Toward Italy
• The Austrian Anschluss
• The Munich Conference and the End of the Czechoslovakian State
• World War II: From European Conflict to Global Conflict
• The United States from Isolationism to Support for Great Britain
• The Tehran Conference
• The Dumbarton Oaks and Bretton Woods Conferences
• The Yalta Conference
• The Atomic Bomb, the Surrender of Japan, and the Potsdam Conference
• George Kennan's "Long Telegram"
• The Iranian Crisis
• The Sovietization of Central and Eastern Europe and the "Iron Curtain"
• The Conflict Over the Future of Germany
• From Turkey to Greece: The "Truman Doctrine"
• The United States and the Reconstruction of Western Europe: The "Marshall Plan"
• The Structuring of Europe into Blocs: From the Cominform to the "Coup d'Etat" Prague," from the Italian elections to the Tito Schism
• The militarization of the East-West confrontation: the Korean War, the birth of NATO, German rearmament
• The beginning of European construction: the "Schuman Plan" and the European Coal and Steel Community
• The question of German rearmament: the "Pleven Plan" and the European Defence Community
• The consequences of the Cold War in the West and East and Eisenhower's "New Look"
• Stalin's death and the "first détente"
• The emergence of a new world: independence, liberation movements, non-alignment (1945-1960)
• The Middle East and the birth of Israel
• The Suez Crisis and Nasserism
• The emergence of the Third World: the Bandung Conference and "non-alignment"
• Decolonization in sub-Saharan Africa
• Latin America and the growing intolerance of US hegemony
• The East-West confrontation in the Khrushchev era: From Berlin to Cuba, to the "Test Ban Treaty"
• The Cuban Missile Crisis and Its Consequences
• The Kennedy Administration and American Involvement in Vietnam
• The Johnson Administration and the "Escalation" of the Vietnam Conflict
• Mao's China and the Ideological Clash Between Moscow and Beijing
• The Fracture of the 1970s: The West's Crisis and the Global South's Awakening (1968–1980)
• Henry Kissinger and the Great Détente: Successes and Limits
• The United States and Allende's Chile
• The Yom Kippur War and the Israeli-Egyptian Dialogue
• Brandt's "Ostpolitik"
• The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Helsinki Accords
• The SALT II Treaty and the Growing Difficulties of Détente
• The Khomeini Revolution in Iran and the American Defeat
• The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and the Crisis of Détente
• Reagan's America and the "Second" Cold War
• The Rise of Gorbachev
• I First failures of the new international order: Somalia and Rwanda
• The Balkan crises and the Yugoslav wars
• The Russian crisis
• The evolution of NATO and the final phase of the Yugoslav conflict
• September 11 and its consequences
• The emergence of new international actors
• Putin's Russia
• Lula's Brazil and the new balance of power in Latin America
• China's rise to global prominence
• India and its contradictions
• The "Arab Spring" and the start of the civil war in Syria
• Erdoğan's Turkey
• ISIS and the phenomenon of Islamic terrorism
• Further elements of tension in the Middle East and Africa and partial American disengagement
• The European Union facing the economic crisis
• Russia and the conflict with Ukraine
• The different consequences of the economic crisis in Latin America and Asia
• The Trump presidency in a divided West
• The crisis of the European Union
• The arc of crisis: from the Mediterranean to the Middle East
• The uncertain stability of emerging countries and the difficulties of Africa and Latin America