Student Support Materials for History — Edexcel A2 Unit 3 Option E2: A World Divided: Superpower Relations, 1944-90

Enable students to succeed in their exam with Superpower Relations. This study aid contains the key information that students need for Edexcel History A2 Unit 3 Option E2, clearly laid out with Examiners' and Essential notes. Also included are graded essays with full comments from experienced examiners on how to secure higher grades.

A world divided: Superpower relations, 1944–90 covers all the content and skills your students will need for their Edexcel A2 Unit 3 Option E2 examination, including:

• Chapter 1: CONTROVERSY A: WHY DID THE COLD WAR BETWEEN THE SUPERPOWERS EMERGE IN THE YEARS TO 1953?
Including – The origins of the Cold War 1917–44; early stages of the Cold War, 1945–9; Stalinisation in Eastern Europe, 1945–53; Korean War, 1950–3; critical assessment of the key interpretations – ideological confrontation, great power rivalry, responsibility of the leaders, misjudgement

• Chapter 2: THE POST-STALIN THAW AND THE BID FOR PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE
Including – The USSR after Stalin; Soviet moves towards peaceful co-existence and the US response; the end of the thaw

• Chapter 3: THE ARMS RACE, 1949–63
Including – Development of weapon technology and delivery systems; the ‘balance of terror’; the Cuban Missile Crisis

• Chapter 4: SINO–SOVIET RELATIONS, 1949–76
Including – Sino–Soviet relations, 1949–50; consolidation of the friendship, 1950–4; deterioration, 1954–8; confrontation, 1959–69; ‘ping-pong’ diplomacy; Sino–US relations, 1972–6

• Chapter 5: DÉTENTE, 1969–80
Including – The origins and features of détente; the reality and success of détente, 1973–6; critics and détente in decline; the end of détente, 1979–81

• Chapter 6: CONTROVERSY B: WHY DID THE COLD WAR COME TO AN END IN THE 1980s?
Including – US foreign policy in the 1980s; weakening Soviet control over Eastern Europe; the end of the Cold War; critical assessment of the key interpretations – the role of personalities, the impact of economic factors, ‘people power’ in the Soviet Bloc, the moral bankruptcy of communism

• Chapter 7: EXAM SKILLS

• Chapter 8: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

• Index