International Law and the Cold War is the first book dedicated to examining the relationship between the Cold War and International Law. The authors adopt a variety of creative approaches - in relation to events and fields such as nuclear war, environmental protection, the Suez crisis and the Lumumba assassination - in order to demonstrate the many ways in which international law acted upon the Cold War and in turn show how contemporary international law is an inheritance of the Cold War. Their innovative research traces the connections between the Cold War and contemporary legal constructions of the nation-state, the environment, the third world, and the refugee; and between law, technology, science, history, literature, art, and politics.

‘... a volume that definitely refutes the biased view of the Cold War as a terra incognita for international lawyers and summons historians to take up the gauntlet of writing Cold War histories that account for the multiple dimensions in which international law was made and performed during a period we have not entirely moved out to this day.’

Etienne Peyrat Source: Journal of the history of International Law

‘… the editors have managed to achieve something rare these days: an edited volume that could almost (but even that is obviously subjective) be read from the beginning until the end instead of merely reading some of its chapters. That deserves a lot of credit. The international law aspects of the Cold War have received the kind of attention and care they deserve more than ever…’

Ralph Janik Source: Austrian Review of International and European Law