Area Studies, History of

Area studies are the systematic efforts of knowledge production about particular world-regions through academic institutions often used to inform foreign policy strategies of national governments. Their history is a classic example to show the interrelatedness between the political history of the Cold War and the intellectual history of the social sciences in the twentieth century. This article outlines the emergence of area studies in the Soviet Union and the United States of America before turning to more recent trends and criticisms that characterize the field until today.