"Women in Diplomacy - From the Interwar to the Cold War"
Conference hosted by the Department of International History; sponsored by the Cold War Studies Project, The LSE IDEAS Women in Diplomacy, The Centre for Women Peace and Security at LSE, Oxford Centre for Life Writing, University of Sussex Centre for American Studies, University of Westminster, The Global Biography Working Group, and the Women's History Network.
Friday, 8 March 2024
Listen to the recording here
"1983 Remembered: The Most Dangerous Year in the Cold War?"
Conference hosted by the Department of International History; sponsored by the Cold War Studies Project
Tuesday, 12 December: Keynote Lecture 1 ("Reflections on 1983" - David Holloway)
Wednesday, 13 December: Conference Day 1
Wednesday, 13 December: Keynote Lecture 2 ("George F. Kennan and the End of the Cold War" - Frank Costigliola)
Thursday, 14 December: Conference Day 2
Thursday, 14 December: Keynote Lecture 3 ("Nuclear Holocaust and Historical Memory" - Carol Gluck)
"To Run the World: the Kremlin’s Foreign Policy from the Cold War to the post-Cold War", with Professor Sergey Radchenko
Department of International History Research Forum
Thursday 7 March 2024
Sergey Radchenko will discuss his new magisterial book To Run the World: the Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power, forthcoming in the Cambridge University Press in May 2024. In particular he explores how the Soviet and Russian leaders formulated and pursued their foreign policy aims during the Cold War, and in its aftermath.
The Beginning of the End of the Cold War
Co-hosted with the Department of International History
Tuesday 17 November 2020
Simon Miles discusses how the United States and the Soviet Union decided to move from covert engagement to overt conversation and how this laid the groundwork for the end of the Cold War.
30 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall: German historical memory and national identity
Co-hosted with the Department of International History
Wednesday 23 October 2019
Hope Harrison examines the arc of memory politics in Germany since 1989, including the impact of the rise of the far right as well as German plans for the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall.
NATO at 70: History, Politics and Challenges
Thursday 23 May 2019
Reflecting on NATO’s 70 anniversary, this round-table discussion reflected on the challenges that the Alliance faces today in light of its long-term history and development.
The Underrated Ally: Italy in the Cold War
Most histories of the Cold War portray Italy as being passive, without its own ambitious foreign policy. This panel discussion challenges that assumption by exploring Italian diplomacy during the Cold War and how Italian foreign policy was shaped by the country's domestic economy and politics.
The Cold War: a world history
Arne Westad and Michael Cox discusses the truly global nature of the Cold War, with East and West demanding absolute allegiance around the world.
Forging Europe: Vichy France and the origins of the European Union
LSE IDEAS-Open University event
In this lecture, Luc-André Brunet explains continuities from the wartime Vichy regime to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the forerunner to today’s European Union, and what this means for current debates about Europe.
Gorbachev: his life and times
LSE IDEAS-LSE Department of International History event
How did a peasant boy rise to the top of the Soviet system and end it? Pulitzer Prize winner William Taubman explains how Gorbachev's biography and background influenced his unique role in world history.
The Balkans in the Cold War: Book Launch Discussion
The edited volume ‘Balkans in the Cold War’ contains 16 contributions from renowned experts and scholars on how the global Cold War manifested in the Balkans. This Q&A with the editors includes introductory comments by Arne Westad and Vesselin Dimitrov.
Trump and China in the Asian Century
Part of the Rethinking the Cold War Lecture Series with the University of Sheffield
The election of Donald Trump as president signals a profound change in US foreign relations. In this lecture, Professor Arne Westad of Harvard University asks what the reactions to the Trump presidency are likely to be in eastern Asia and whether we are facing a fundamental power shift in the region.
The World Reimagined: Americans and Human Rights
Part of the Rethinking the Cold War Lecture Series with the University of Sheffield
How did the idea of 'human rights' develop in the twentieth century? In this lecture, Mark Bradley explored how changes in US culture and thought in the 1970s reflected a changing global idea of 'universial human rights' and changed the American idea of what it means to be free.
From One Cold War to Another?
Part of the LSE Literary Festival 2017
A wide ranging conversation with authors and columnists Anne Applebaum, Gideon Rachman, and Jonathan Fenby on if Russia and the West are facing a 'New Cold War', the rise of China, and the future of the international order.
A Briton at the Heart of Europe: Revisiting Roy Jenkins' Presidency of the European Commission
LSE IDEAS - LSE Department of International History event
Forty years ago, a British politician was appointed President of the European Commission. In this lecture Dr Piers Ludlow explored what Jenkins' tenure reveals about the nature of the job and the history of Britain in Europe.
An Imaginary War? Culture, Thought and Nuclear Conflict during the Cold War
Part of the Rethinking the Cold War Lecture Series with the University of Sheffield
Collective imaginations of nuclear warfare were a central battleground of the Cold War, fought through war-games and fictitious scenarios. This panel debate explored the 'imaginary war' and how culture and individuals struggled to comprehend nuclear war.
Stalin's Team
We know a lot about Stalin but less about the team – Molotov, Kaganovich, Mikoyan and the rest of a group whose membership was roughly but never quite equivalent to the Politburo – that surrounded him for 25 years.
25 Years After the End of the Cold War: Its Legacy in a New World Order
Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, how do these events shape the world today? What are the legacies of the Cold War? And are we truly in the midst of a new Cold War?
The Polish Roundtable Talks and the End of the Cold War
The Polish roundtable talks and subsequent elections on 4 June 1989 were a crucial step in ending the Cold War. 25 years later, LSE IDEAS and the Polish Embassy in London hosted witnesses of the Polish Democratic Transition to join academics to discuss the importance of the events for Poland, for Europe, and for the world.
The Cold War and the Culture of Secrecy
Official secrecy in the U.S. during the Cold War altered the culture of government and served many hidden agendas. Matthew Connelly explains how classified information became an institutional asset, security clearances became a way to police behaviour, and senior officials leaked classified information to gain higher office. Select Matthew Connelly on the Philippe Roman Chair page to listen.
The Political Economy of the Cold War
At its heart the Cold War was a competition between two economic systems. Niall Ferguson compares and contrasts the United States and the Soviet Union and asks how far the outcome of the Cold War was economically determined from the outset. Select Niall Ferguson on the Philippe Roman Chair page to listen.
The Third World’s War
The Cold War was waged partly through a series of proxy wars in Third World countries from Guatemala to Korea to Vietnam. Niall Ferguson argues that we need to see the ‘Third World's War’ in perspective. He explains how successful the Soviet Union was in pursuing a strategy of fomenting revolution and how consistently successive U.S. administrations behaved in response. Select Niall Ferguson on the Philippe Roman Chair page to listen.
Nuclear Arms & Human Rights
The decisive breakthroughs in the Cold War occurred in seemingly unrelated fields, nuclear arms control and human rights. Niall Ferguson asks what were the links between these two issues and which mattered more? Select Niall Ferguson on the Philippe Roman Chair page to listen.
Private Events
Star Wars: A View from the Commentariat
Friday 31 May 2019
Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman from King's College London delivered the keynote lecture entitled 'Star Wars: A View from the Commentariat'. This was part of the conference 'Towards an International History of the Strategic Defence Initiative'.
International Graduate Student Conference on the Cold War
Jointly organsied by the Cold War Studies Project at LSE IDEAS, the Center for Cold War Studies and International History at the University of California in Santa Barbara, and the Cold War Group at George Washington University in Washington DC. The annual conference alternates between the three campuses. The 2018 conference took place at LSE on 3-5 May.
Nuclear Diplomacy in the ‘Second Cold War’: New Perspectives on NATO and the Euromissile Crisis
Monday 26 March 2018
This workshop discussed new perspectives on the controversial deployment of nuclear weapons in Western Europe (‘Euromissiles’) in the early 1980s. Drawing on newly declassified sources across different NATO member states and beyond, participants re-evaluated the role of nuclear diplomacy at the height of the so-called Second Cold War.