Policy and Research | Policy and Research Historic | Conference June '08

Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins University SAIS Conference Series in International Relations
“Overcoming the Iron Curtain Visions of the End of the Cold War in Europe 1945-90”
Sorbonne, Paris June 12-14, 2008
Organized by the Universities of Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne and Paris III - Sorbonne Nouvelle in cooperation with Bundeskanzler Willy Brandt Stiftung, CIMA, LSE Cold War Studies Centre, and The Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins University, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)
For the call for papers, click here
The conference
The objective of the conference was to bring to the fore the reflections, programs and strategies which, throughout the period, have aimed at calling into question the bipolar system and at replacing it by alternative logic, approaches or concepts. These visions may be associated with individuals, whatever their role or function (say, a Kennan, a de Gaulle, a Brandt, a Reagan or a Gorbachev); of organized groups (e.g. political parties like the French RPF in the late 1940’s, or the German SPD and Eurocommunists in the 1970’s); or of civil society (as witnessed for example by the posture of Soviet or East European dissidents in the 1980’s). Alternatively, they may have been connected with certain processes (the European integration process, the CSCE) or certain events (e.g. the Euromissile crisis and the peace movement). Depending on the period and context, they may have constituted actual, thoroughly conceived programs, more blurred, utopian aspirations aiming at the reconciliation between the two halves of divided Europe, or even simply the belief that the cold war had already, in effect, come to an end (for instance after Stalin’s death or at the height of détente). Such an effort is of interest for several reasons. Although the most outstanding visions of the end of the Cold War—especially those of prominent actors—have caught the attention of historians, the conference hopefully brought to the fore previously neglected aspects, approaches or representatives of the problem and thus enhance our general knowledge of the overall phenomenon. Moreover, while specific visions of the end of the Cold War have been treated on their own merits and in their particular contexts, the effort aimed to make it possible to apprehend them as a whole, thus allowing for a more systematic questioning of the very notion of “anticipating” the end of the Cold War throughout the period (e.g. by allowing typologies). Finally, the effort revealed a lot about the nature, the structure and the multiple perceptions of the Cold War itself. Because they were elaborated in particular contexts and, in fact, in opposition to these situations, the various visions of the end of the Cold War were treated as yardsticks which made it possible to better appreciate these same contexts or situations and, therefore, to better analyze the dynamics of the conflict and the dialectics between status quo and change throughout the period—thus further contributing to the understanding of its end.
The draft program Thursday, June 12 13:45 – 18:00
13:45	Opening Remarks
Frédéric Bozo, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris III, and Marie-Pierre Rey, Université de Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne. Pierre Rey, Université de Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne.
14:00-15:00	False Endings and Counterfactuals
Chair: Frédéric Bozo, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris III, and Marie-Pierre Rey, Université de Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne. Why was the End of the Cold War not anticipated? Michael Cox, London School of Economics The Uses and Limits of IR Theory in Explaining the End of the Cold War Mark Kramer, Harvard University Comments and discussion by Pierre Hassner, Sciences-Po Paris, and discussion
15:00-16.00	Crystallizing the Cold War
Chair: Frédéric Bozo, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris III, and Marie-Pierre Rey, Université de Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne. George F. Kennan: “A Gaullist Before de Gaulle” John L. Harper, Johns Hopkins University, SAIS Bologna Center The Bilderberg Group and the End of the Cold War: the Disengagement Debate in the 1950s Thomas W. Gijswijt, University of Heidelberg Comments by Irwin Wall, University of California, and discussion
16:00-16:30	Coffee Break
16:30-18:00	Stalin’s Death and After: A Missed Opportunity?
Chair: Marie-Pierre Rey, Université de Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne The Soviet Campaign to End the Cold War, 1953-1955 Geoffrey Roberts, University College, Cork Stalin’s Death and Anglo-American Visions of Ending the Cold War, 1953 Jaclyn Stanke, Campbell University, Bueis Creek, NC “The dawn of communism is rising above the planet!” Public visions of the end of the Cold War and Soviet intellectual elites after Stalin’s Death Vladislav Zubok, Temple University Comments by Christian Ostermann, Cold War International History Program, Washington, and discussion (tbc)
20:00	Dinner
Friday, June 13 9:15-18:00
9:15-10:45	Theoretical Visions
Chair: Michael Cox, London School of Economics Realist Theory and the End of the Cold War: Morgenthau, Aron and Waltz Marco Cesa, Johns Hopkins University, SAIS Bologna Center Liberal International Theory and Imagining the End of the Cold War Joseph M. Grieco, Duke University Look for the Blind Spot Where Structural Realism Meets Path Dependence Erik Jones, Johns Hopkins University, SAIS Bologna Center Comments by Jean-Yves Haine, SIPRI, Stockholm, and discussion
10:45-11:15	Coffee Break
11:15-12:15	Alternative Visions of the 1960s
Chair: Leopoldo Nuti, Università di Roma Tre Towards a New Concert: De Gaulle’s Vision of post-Cold War a Europe Garret Martin, George Washington University Franz Josef Strauß and the End of the Cold War Ronald Granieri, University of Pennsylvania Comments by Maurice Vaïsse, Sciences-Po Paris, and discussion
12:30-14:00	Lunch
14:00-15:00	A Helsinki Vision?
Chair: N. Piers Ludlow, LSE A Very British Vision of Détente: The UK’s Foreign Policy during the Helsinki Process Martin D. Brown, Richmond: The American International University in London Attempting to End the Cold War: The EC Nine and the Helsinki CSCE Angela Romano, University of Florence Comments by Svetlana Savranskaya, NSA, Washington, and discussion
15:00-17:00	Visions and Dissent in the 1970s
Chair: N. Piers Ludlow, LSE The Liberal and Democratic Peace Theory: From Brandt’s Ostpolitik to Political Sciences of the 1990s Gottfried Niedhart, University of Mannheim Neither in one bloc, nor in the other: Berlinguer and the PCI in Eastern and Western Perceptions Laura Fasanaro, University of Roma Tre Jirí Hájek and the CSCE Appeal of the Charter 77 Christian Domnitz, Institute of European History, Mainz
15:45-16:15	Coffee Break
Comments by Odd Arne Westad, London School of Economics, and discussion
17:00-18:00	Vision or Status Quo in the 1970s
Chair: Robert Frank, Université de Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne A Split Personality? Henry Kissinger and the “End” of the Cold War Thomas A. Schwartz, Vanderbilt University Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and his vision of the end of the Cold War Georges-Henri Soutou, Université de Paris Sorbonne – Paris IV Comments by Olav Njøtlstad, The Norwegian Nobel Institute, and discussion
20:00	Dinner
Keynote Speaker: Andrei Grachev, the Gorbachev Foundation, Moscow
Saturday, June 14 9:30-11:30
9:30-13:00	Evolutionary visions and unexpected results in the 1980s
Chair: Marco Cesa, Johns Hopkins University, SAIS Bologna Center Solidarnosc: Ending the Cold War, Unintentionally Gregory F. Domber, Stanford University Common Security as a Way to Overcome the (second) Cold War: Willy Brandt’s Strategy for Peace in the 1980s Bernd Rother, Bundeskanzler Willy Brandt Stiftung, Berlin Which socialism after the Cold War? Gorbachev’s vision and its impact on the Western European left Marie-Pierre Rey, Université Paris I-Panthéon Sorbonne Comments by Andrei Grachev, the Gorbatchev Foundation, Moscow, and discussion
11:00-11:30	Coffee Break
Chair: Bernd Rother, Bundeskanzler Willy Brandt Stiftung, Berlin Thatcher’s Double Track Road to the End of the Cold War: Merging Liberalization and Preservation Ilaria Poggiolini, University of Pavia Mitterrand’s Vision and the End of the Cold War Frédéric Bozo, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris III Visions of Ending the Cold War: Triumphalism and U.S. Soviet Policy in the 1980s Beth A. Fischer, University of Toronto Nuclear Arms Control and Visions of the End of the Cold War i the 1980s Leopoldo Nuti and Marilena Gala, Università di Roma Tre (tbc) Comments by Tom Blanton, NSA, Washington, and discussion
13:15	Farewell Reception