Raffaele D'Agata is professor of contemporary history at the University of Sassari. He has published books on international twentieth-century history, including Da Monaco a Bretton Woods: l'evoluzione transnazionale degli interessi e degli scopi (Milan: Franco Angeli, 1989) and La nemesi dei prestadenaro : economia mondiale e Guerra fredda, 1944-1948 (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2001). Lawrence Gray is professor of political science and international relations at John Cabot University in Rome. His publications include The Italian Communist Party: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (Greenwood Press, 1980), co-edited with Simon Serfaty; Corporate Activities in the Era of Global Economy (Tokyo: Keizai University Press, 1992); and L'America di Roosevelt negli anni dell'esilio di Luigi Sturzo (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2002).

Raffaele D'Agata is one of Italy's best known historians of the Cold War era.

• Part 1 PrefacePart 2 IntroductionPart 3 SECTION 1: WHAT WAS AT STAKE FOR THE "LOSERS"?Chapter 4 Wilfred Loth Soviet Ambivalences, Western OverstatementsChapter 5 Odd Arne Westad Ideas and Power: The Soviet Inner Debate in the 1970sChapter 6 Rodolfo Ragionieri An Actor in Search of a Theory: Explaining Gorbachev's Decision Making in 1989Chapter 7 Panel: On Revisions and ComparisonsPart 8 SECTION II: WHAT STAKES DID THE "WINNERS" GAIN?Chapter 9 Raffaele D'Agata Ostpolitik, Ero-Communism, and Détente: Responding to the World CrisisChapter 10 Lawrence Gray An Uneasy Empire: Myth, Obsession, Identity and American PolicyChapter 11 Gian Paolo Calchi Novati The Defeat of the Third World: The Case of the Horn of AfricaChapter 12 Panel: The Security Issue and the Chances of Western CommunicationPart 13 The Contributors