Hot Crises of the Cold War

The Cold War characterised world events in the second half of the 20th century. During this period, international crises, caused by the rivalry between the two power blocs, alternated with relatively calm years when confrontation gave way to "détente". The publication 'Hot Crises of the Cold War' is dedicated to those periods in international relations when the world stood on the brink of a global armed conflict. The first Berlin Crisis in 1948–1949 was related to the Soviet blockade of access routes to West Berlin; in the Far East, the North Korean regime's attempt to violently unify the divided peninsula sparked the hot Korean War; and the Suez Crisis in 1956 was linked to the crisis of colonial policy of Great Britain and France. Arguably the most dangerous was the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the Soviets directly threatened the United States with their nuclear missile presence in Cuba. Alongside these crises, where the actors were truly teetering on the edge of a worldwide armed conflict, the Cold War was accompanied by partial clashes that were de facto proxy conflicts between the two superpowers. Nálevka's publication is largely based on declassified sources from Soviet and North American archives and follows on from his previous publications 'The Cold War' and 'The Cuban Missile Crisis'.