The Great Transformation?
Reassessing the Causes and Consequences of the End of the Cold War
The Graduate Institute, Geneva
September 24-26, 2015
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)