The world since 1945 has witnessed fundamental changes, notably the increasing influence of the West -- particularly the United States -- in a variety of spheres, the emergence and collapse of the U.S.S.R., the end of colonial empires in Asia and Africa, and the escalation of wars and other conflicts in the Third World. In this brilliantly incisive and highly readable survey, T. E. Vadney examines the key events -- in Afghanistan, Algeria, China, Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, and elsewhere -- without ever neglecting the underlying global trends. Vadney explores the rapid changes in the Middle East, the end of apartheid in South Africa, and the aims of American foreign policy, concluding with a new Epilogue in which he examines the direction of post-1945 history as the world enters the twenty-first century.