This chapter argues that the impact of the Second World War was substantial enough to mark a change to version 1.1 Western-GIS. It examines the core in terms of the Cold War, looking particularly at bipolarity and the huge amplification of the defence dilemma generated by nuclear weapons. It looks at the periphery in terms of decolonisation, arguing that this might come to be seen as more important than the Cold War. Decolonisation eventually broke the separation between ir as relations between ‘civilised’ states on the one hand, and metropolitan–colonial relations on the other, and thus made ir truly global for the first time. While seeing them as substantially independent phenomena, we look at the interplay between the Cold War and decolonisation, and at the rise of China as an enigmatic outsider to both processes. The chapter concludes by looking at the ending of the Cold War mainly as a victory for capitalism, though still seeing this as within the frame of version 1.1 GIS.