Bringing together the work of scholars from Eastern and Western Europe, this volume re-examines the crucial moments in the five years leading up to the Cold War. With the aid of new evidence from the official records of former Communist countries, this fresh analysis of diplomatic relations, economic imperialism, and cultural influences on great, middle and small-rank European power, reveals how and why the victors failed to reach an agreement of postwar order in Europe, a failure that resulted in a conflict that shaped the second half of the twentieth century.

BRUNO ARCIDIACONO Professor of History of International Relations at the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales of the University of Geneva
STEFANO BIANCHINI Lecturer in History of Eastern Europe at the University of Bologna
JERZY BOREJSZA Professor of History at the Historical Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw
LASZLO BORHI Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest
ANNA DI BIAGIO Associate Professor of History of Eastern Europe at the University of Florence
ENNIO DI NOLFO Professor of History of International Relations at the University of Florence and Deputy-Rector of the University of Florence
SAKI DOCKRILL Senior Reader in International History at King's College, London
RENÉ GIRAULT was Professor of History of International Relations at the University of Paris I Sorbonne
ANNIE GUÉNARD Agregée d'histoire, Ph. D. in History and a member of the P. Renouvin Institute (Paris)
JOHN KENT Reader of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science
MARTINA KESSEL Professor of Modern History and Gender History at the University of Bielefeld
ANN LANE Reader of International History at the Queen's University Belfast
WILFRIED LOTH Professor of Modern History at the University of Essen
VOJTECH MASTNY Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, in charge of the Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact
ANTOINE MARÉSDirector of the French Cultural Institute in Prague
VETLA MOUSSAKOVA Maitre de Conférences at the University of Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle
MIKHAIL NARINSKY Professor of International Relations at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO)
STEVAN K. PAVLOWITCH Emeritus Professor of History of the Balkans at the University of Southampton
GIORGIO PETRACCHI Professor of History of Eastern Europe at the University of Udine
RONALD W. PRUESSEN Professor of History at the University of Toronto (Missisauga)
OLIVER RATHKOLB Research coordinator at the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue
KLAUS SCHWABE Emeritus Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Aachen
GEORGES-HENRI SOUTOU Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Paris IV Panthéon Sorbonne
GIAMPAOLO VALDEVIT Lecturer in International History at the University of Trieste

Notes on the Contributors Introduction; A.Varsori PART I: PLANS FOR POSTWAR EUROPE 1943-1945 The United States from Roosevelt to Truman; K.Schwabe British Postwar Planning from Europe 1942-45; J.Kent De Gaulle's Plans for Postwar Europe; G.H.Soutou Soviet Plans for Postwar Europe; V.Mastny The Balkan Union: An Instance in the Postwar Plans of Small Countries; S.K.Pavlowitch Setting the Limits of the Soviet Hegemony in Europe; E.Calandri PART II: EAST-WEST EUROPEAN RELATIONS IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR: THE VIEW FROM THE WEST Great Britain, the Balkans, and the Division of Europe, 1943-45; B.Arcidiacono Franco-Czechoslovak Relations from 1944-1948 or the Munich Syndrome; A.Marés Italy and Eastern Europe, 1943-1948; G.Petracchi Socialist Parties between East and West; W.Loth Minor and Major Powers and the Failure of the Anti-Fascist Wartime Alliance; A.Varsori PART III: EAST-WEST EUROPEAN RELATIONS IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR: THE VIEW FROM THE EAST Bulgarian Cultural Elites' Perception of Europe 1944-1948; S.Moussakova Soviet Economic Imperialism and the Sovietization of Hungary; L.Borhi Yugoslavia Between the Two Emerging Blocs 1943-48: A Reassessment G.Valdevit Relations between East-European Countries: The Balkan Federation (1942-49); S.Bianchini Some Methodological Questions; J.W.Borejsza PART IV: THE PARTITION OF EUROPE 1947-1948 British Perceptions of the Sovietization of Eastern Europe, 1947-48; A.Lane The Cultural Policy of France in Eastern Europe; A.Guénard 'Unpleasant Facts' and Conflicted Responses: US Interpretation of Soviet Policies in East-Central Europe, 1943-48; R.W.Pruessen The Art of 'Failure to Preserve the Peace': British and French Policies towards Germany and the Council of Foreign Ministers, 1947; M.Kessel The Partition of Europe (1947-48): An Overview; S.Dockrill PART V: THE SETTING IN OF THE COLD WAR The Soviet Union and the Marshall Plan; M.M.Narinsky The United States, Europe and the Marshall Plan; E.Di NolfoThe Cominform as the Soviet Response to the Marshall Plan; A.D.Biagio First Budapest, then Prague and Berlin, Why Not Vienna? Austria and the Origins of the Cold War, 1947-48; O.Rathkolb The Partition of Europe; R.Girault Index