This seventh - and penultimate - edition of this enormously successful standard work now covers fifty years, making it one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date analyses of world history since the end of the Second World War. The main additions to the Seventh Edition of this seminal work include: * the immediate aftermath of the disintegration of the Soviet empire in Europe and the Soviet Union itself * the covulsive collapse of the Yugolslav federation * the Gulf War against Iraq and its various sequels * the Maastricht Treaty for the furthering of the European Union * the tensions in China between economic liberalisation and the stringencies of communism in the shadow of Deng Xiaoping's prolonged rule * mixed fortunes in Africa from optimism in South Africa, Ghana and even Angola to grimness or worse in Nigeria, Somalia, Rwanda and Liberia * thin times for the UN, the expiring GATT and internationalism generally. World Politics is an invaluably clear and authoritative guide through the complexities of contemporary international politics, during the half century of the Cold War and the post-Cold War world order. Peter Calvocoressi is a figure of distinction in the field of International Relations. A former reader in International Relations at the University of Sussex, he is the author of numerous books, including Independent Africa and the World, Fall Out: World War II and the Shaping of Postwar Europe, and Resilient Europe: A study of the Years 1870 - 2000, all published by Longman. During the War he worked in British Intelligence at Bletchley Park and has featured on several occasions on television.