How Close Were We To Armageddon? 50 Years On, Why Should We Still Study The Cuban Missile Crisis?

Why, fifty years on, is the Cuban Missile Crisis still a subject of considerable fascination for academics and professionals alike? Should we still be studying it, and if so, how? These are just some of the questions addressed in a special issue in the journal International Relations, published by SAGE.

As one of the most intensely studied events of the twentieth century, the Cuban Missile Crisis could suffer from “over examination”, yet as Guest Editor Len Scott, Professor of International Politics and Dean of Social Science at Aberystwyth University, remarks: “While all historiography may be revisionist in intent, the missile crisis provides much ammunition for those who question whether ‘the truth’ can be found’”.

While new information has clarified or changed our understanding fundamental debates remain over key issues, the interpretations of historians and the models of political scientists. As such these interpretations require revisiting and revising.

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