Reassessing the Causes and Consequences of the End of the Cold War
The Great Transformation? Reassessing the Causes and Consequences of the End of the Cold War
The Graduate Institute, Geneva September 24-26, 2015
INTRODUCTION:
The conference “The Great Transformation? Reassessing the Causes and Consequences of the End of the Cold War” aims to move beyond the simple identification of individual protagonists (the winners or the losers), while focusing on the processes and interactions that climaxed with the developments of 1989-1991 (from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the collapse of the Soviet Union).
At the moment, the state of research on the causes and consequences of the end of the Cold War – necessarily still at its initial phase – seems to have focused on isolated themes (e.g. the role of such individuals as Ronald Reagan or Mikhail Gorbachev; the impact of the human rights movements; the consequences of the economic reforms in the Soviet bloc), largely independent and detached from each other. The conference seeks to act as a unique forum for bringing many of these strands together. The topics addressed at the conference will be diverse and wide-ranging, reflecting the latest developments in the field of Cold War studies. Many of the papers presented at the conference will be based on primary research on previously classified documents.
The conference will produce several publications, and thus make a clear impact on the yet to be fully developed historiography on the causes and consequences of the end of the Cold War. Moreover, by searching for the roots of some of the issues that have dominated the international scene since the 1990s, the conference will also open a window on the post-Cold War era. Therefore, the conference will link the past to the present, searching for the ‘lessons’ of history that are relevant for today’s policy makers.
DRAFT CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Thursday, September 24th
9.00- 10.30 Opening words and Roundtable: the Great Powers and the end of the Cold War
• Odd Arne Westad (Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University) • Vladislav Zubok (London School of Economics) • Jeremi Suri (University of Texas at Austin) • Anne Deighton (University of Oxford)
Chair: Jussi Hanhimäki (The Graduate Institute, Geneva)
10.30-11.00 Coffee break
11.00-12.30 Panel I: Did the Unites States ‘win’ the Cold War?
• Susan Colborn (University of Toronto): Reagan as an ‘Atlantist’: NATO’s role in US policy • Simon Miles (University of Texas at Austin): the Reagan administration’s initial engagement with Soviet Union • Tom Blanton (The National Security Archive, Washington DC): Reagan, Gorbachev and the end of the Cold War
Comments: Jeremi Suri (University of Texas at Austin) Chair: Geir Lundestad (The Norwegian Nobel Institute)
12.30-14.00 Lunch
14.00-15.30 Panel II: Developments in the Soviet bloc
• Wolfgang Muller (Austrian Academy of Sciences): The role of second rank political actors in ending the Cold War • Svetlana Savaranskaya (The National Security Archive, Washington): Soviet withdrawal from Eastern Europe • Robert Brier (German Historical Institute in Warsaw): US support for East European dissidents, the end of the Cold War and the contested meaning of human rights
Comments: Vladislav Zubok (LSE) Chair: Odd Arne Westad (Harvard University)
15.30-16.00 Coffee break
16.00-17.30 Panel III: The ‘Arc of Crisis’ and its impact on the end of the Cold War
• Sean Kalic (US Army Command and Staff College, Kansas): The unattended consequences of US policy in Afghanistan • Barbara Zanchetta (The Graduate Institute, Geneva): Arming the ‘freedom fighters’: from the Carter doctrine to the Reagan doctrine • Malcolm Byrne (The National Security Archive): The Iran-Iraq war and its repercussions
Comments: Olav Njolstad (Norwegian Nobel Institute) Chair: Michael Cox (LSE)
17.30-19.00 Keynote speech and aperitif:
Geir Lundestad (Norwegian Nobel Institute): “A prize winning performance: Mikhail Gorbachev, the Nobel Peace Prize and the End of the Cold War.”
19.30 Conference Dinner
* * *
Friday, September 25th
9.30-11.00 Panel IV: Western European developments
• Bernhard Blumenau (The Graduate Institute, Geneva): German foreign policy and the ‘German problem’ before and after unification • Eleonora Guasconi (University of Genoa): The Single European Act, European political cooperation and the end of the Cold War • Ruud Van Dijk (University of Amsterdam): Peace activists and the end of the Cold War: the case of the Dutch Inter-Church peace council
Comments: Anne Deighton (University of Oxford) Chair: Mario del Pero (Science Po, Paris)
11.00-11.30 Coffee break
11.30-13.00 Panel V: Eastern European developments
• Sielke Kelner (The Graduate Institute, Geneva): The survival of the Socialist Republic of Romania at the end of the Cold War: dependency on the bipolar world • Maximilian Graf (Austrian Academy of Science): The opening of the Austria-Hungarian border revisited: how European détente contributed to overcoming the Iron Curtain • Paul Maddrell (University of Loughborough, UK): The KGB, the Stasi and the End of the Cold War
Comments: Svetlana Savaranskaya (The National Security Archive, Washington DC) Chair: Federico Romero (European University Institute)
13.00-14.30 Lunch
14.30-15.30 Panel VI: Negotiating the end of arms race or managing continued Cold War? The impact of nuclear arms control
• James Graham Wilson (Office of the Historian, US Department of State): SALT II and the INF Treaty • Andrea Chiampan (The Graduate Institute): Did Nuclear Weapons? Evidence from the TNF/INF Controversy, 1973-1983
Comments: Olav Njolstad (The Norwegian Nobel Institute) and Leopoldo Nuti (University of Roma III) Chair: Christian Ostermann (The Wilson Center, Washington DC)
15.30-16.00 Coffee break
16.00-17.00 Discussion: Accessing sources on the end of the Cold War
• Matthew Connelly (Columbia University) • Tom Blanton (National Security Archive, Washington DC) • Christian Ostermann (The Wilson Center, Washington DC)
Chair: Jussi Hanhimaki (The Graduate Institute, Geneva)
17.00 Aperitif (sponsored by the History and Policy-Making Initiative)
17.30-19.00 History and Policy Roundtable: Did the Cold War really ‘matter’? Lessons for today’s policy-makers
• Jussi Hanhimäki (The Graduate Institute, Geneva) • Mahmoud Mohamedou (Geneva Centre for Security Policy and Graduate Institute) • James Goldgeier (American University) • Michael Cox (LSE) • Odd Arne Westad (Harvard University)
Chair: Barbara Zanchetta (The Graduate Institute, Geneva)
19.30 Boat excursion on Lake Geneva and dinner
Saturday, September 26th
9.30-10.30 Panel VII: Exploring the causes of Soviet ‘implosion’
• Chris Miller (Yale University): The Tiananmen Crisis and Soviet debate about Perestroika • Fredrik Stocker (Uppsala University, Sweden) – The economic ‘Westernization’ of Soviet Estonia
Comments: Vladislav Zubok (London School of Economics) Chair: Svetlana Savaranskaya (The National Security Archive)
10.30-11.00 Coffee break
11.00-1200 Panel VIII: The End of the Cold War and the rise of non-state actors
• Timothy Nunan (Harvard University): Humanitarian invasion: the Soviet Union and Humanitarianism in Afghanistan • Riina Turtio (The Graduate Institute): Private military companies in Africa and the end of the Cold War
Comments: Christian Ostermann (The Wilson Center, Washington DC) Chair: Tom Blanton (The National Security Archive)
12.00-14.00 Lunch and closing roundtable: the end of the Cold War and the transformation of the international system
• Michael Cox (London School of Economics) • Leopoldo Nuti (University of Rome III) • Mario del Pero (Science Po, Paris) • Federico Romero (EUI) • Olav Njolstad (The Norwegian Nobel Institute)
Chair: Jussi Hanhimäki (The Graduate Institute, Geneva)