This course will review the alliance systems and conflicts that dominated international relations in the period 1945-1991. It will examine specific incidents such as the Berlin Blockade and Airlift of 1948-49, the Hungarian uprising of 1956, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the Prague Spring, as well as the broader strategies and tactics that followed by the two superpowers and their allies. Particular attention will be given to the documentary evidence that has been declassified in the past two decades, and the light it sheds on earlier developments.