International Relations since 1945: East, West, North, South.

• Author: Nherer, Tapiwa Last Gilfas

By Geir Lunderstad

Los Angeles: Sage, 2018, 328 pages, [pounds sterling]87.00, ISBN: 9781473973459

In International Relations Since 1945: East, West, North, South, Lundestad traverses a vast historical timeline of International Relations (IR) that encompasses the Cold War (1945-1993) and the post-Cold War period up to 2017. In sixteen chapters, he criticizes the traditionalist-revisionist debate for "single-factor explanation" (p. x) while stressing the "mutual accountability of both the East and West" (p. 11) using a post-revisionist perspective. The author aims to give breath to East, West, North, and South relations by remedying the limitations of the already existent literature that he perceives as having shallow thematic analysis. His thesis focuses on U.S. and Soviet relations, not merely describing the history, but "reviewing the motivating forces, cause and effect" (p. xi) of the events and the recurring patterns in contemporary IR. Through subject analysis method, he frames IR in terms of the rise and fall of the East and West discourse and its impact on North and South politics. The author departs from the conventional historical method of interacting with Cold War and IR and demonstrates that the "past is bound to the East and West together." Thus, the present IR owes its shape to the past (p. 14).

According to Lundestad, the rise and fall of great powers is a permanent feature of IR. He suggests that the "Cold War was motivated by the need to fill the power vacuum;" therefore, neither the East nor the West can be solely blamed for it (p. 12). The rivalry can be explained with the help of two elements. The first element is the structure of the international system of anarchy in which the absence of central authority leads to state security maximization. The second is the ideological battle between capitalism and communism. Lunderstad focuses on periods of East-West competition and cooperation from the 1900s industrial revolution until the post-1945 which led to the emergence of the U.S. and the Soviet Union as preponderant powers in 1993. These two factors explain U.S.-Russia conflicts and alliance competition raging on in the 21st century.

In the book, Lundestad demonstrates that trends in the U.S. and Russian foreign policy have remained constant, although the pursuit of goals is affected by changes in political personalities, ideological differences, and political and economic systems. American interests are global, and the...