International Conference on the role of East-Central Europe in the Cold War
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the downfall of the communist regimes in East-Central Europe and the end of the Cold War, the Institute of Contemporary History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in co-operation with the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic are organizing an international conference entitled DROPPING, MAINTAINING AND BREAKING THE IRON CURTAIN: The Cold War and East-Central Europe Twenty Years Later (20 and 21 November 2009). Renowned historians from both sides of the former Iron Curtain divide will utilize two decades of research in the field to evaluate questions about the role of East-Central Europe in the Cold War, the origins and end of the bipolar conflict, and the consequences of the Cold War for the 21st century. The following historians have confirmed their participation: Oliver Bange, Csaba Békés, Thomas Blanton, László Borhi, Anne Deighton, Leonid Gibianskii, Hope M. Harrison, James Hershberg, David Holloway, Michael Hopkins, Mark Kramer, Richard Ned Lebow, Petr Luňák, Vojtěch Mastný, Timothy Naftali, Vladimír Nálevka, Silvio Pons, Alex Pravda, Vilém Prečan, Peter Ruggenthaler, Svetlana Savranskaya, Bernd Schäfer, Georges-Henri Soutou, Rolf Steininger, Dariusz Stola, Soňa Szomolányi, William Taubman, Odd Arne Westad. All the proceedings will be held in English. The conference will take place in the Liechtenstein Palace in Prague. It will be preceded by a panel discussion, in which esteemed academics together with former dissidents will assess the following question: “How Well Did the Cold War Experience Prepare for Membership in NATO and EU?“ The antecedent discussion, simultaneously interpreted into Czech, will take place in the Straka Academy, the seat of the Government of the Czech Republic, on Thursday evening, 19 November 2009.
The preliminary program of the conference is available HERE. You can enrol for the conference HERE.
