Reviewing the Cold War: Approaches, Interpretations, Theory (NS 107)

July 17-20, 1998
Lysebu, Holmenkollen, Oslo, Norway
Organizer: The Norwegian Nobel Institute, through its Director of Research, Dr. Odd Arne Westad.

The symposium drew a total of 34 prominent participants from 10 countries. The tendency of the symposium discussion was toward emphasizing how the availability of sources from the "other side" of the Cold War had led to a new focus on topics related to ideologies and cultural factors. Several speakers nevertheless pointed out that the insights provided to us by the study of national strategies and interests must not be forgotten. A number of lecturers stressed that the study of the Cold War is also useful when evaluating conflicts in today's world. There seems to be a special need to take rhetoric and political symbols seriously and to admit that different mechanisms of action logic exist within various political and cultural traditions.

 

Program
June 17 - Wednesday
3:45 p.m.- 4:00 p.m.	Opening statements Francis Sejersted, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Geir Lundestad, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute
4:00 p.m.	Session I: Approaches Introduction: Odd Arne Westad Papers: John Lewis Gaddis, Mylvyn Leffler, Geir Lundestad and Anders Stephanson Comments: Alexander Chubarian and Jonathan Haslam
June 18 - Thursday
9:00 a.m.-12:00 a.m.	Session 2: IR Theory and Cold War History Papers: Richard Ned Lebow and William Wohlforth Comments: Torbjørn Knutsen and Stein Tønnesson
June 18 - Friday
9:00 a.m.-12:00 a.m.	Session 3: Structural Issues Papers: Rey Koslowski and Douglas Macdonald Comments: Mark Badley and Kristian Gerner
2:00 p.m.- 5:30 p.m.	Session 4: Stragegies and Decision Making Papers: Aaron Friedberg, Wilfried Loth, Constantine Pleshakov and Shu Guang Zhang Comments: Olav Njølstad
June 20 - Saturday
9:00 a.m.-12.00 a.m.	Session 5: Turning Points? Papers: Antonio Varsori, James Hershberg, Jussi Hanhimäki and Vladislav Zubok Comments: Chen Jian, Anne Deighton and Vojtech Mastny

Participants
Dr. Mark Bradley Dept. of History University of Chicago USA	Douglas Macdonald Norwegian Nobel Institute Norway
Dr. Malcolm Byrne National Security Archive, The George Washington University, USA	Jun Niu Norwegian Nobel Institute Norway
Dr. Jian Chen Department of History Southern Illinois University USA	Dr. Olav Njølstad Institutt for forsvarsstudier Oslo, Norway
Prof. Alexander Chubarian Institute of Universal History, Russia	Christian F. Ostermann Cold War International History Project Woodrow Wilson International Center, USA
Dr. Anne Deighton European Studies Centre St. Anthony's College U K	Prof. Helge Pharo Oslo, Norway
Dr. Aaron L. Friedberg Center of International Studies, Princeton University, USA	Dr. Constantine Pleshakov Moscow, Russia
Prof. John Gaddis Department of History Yale University, USA	Prof. Francis Sejersted Norwegian Nobel Committee, Norway
Prof. Kristian Gerner Inst. for Öst-Europa studier, Uppsala universitet, Sweden	Prof. Jarl Simensen Trondheim, Norway
Dr. Jussi M. Hanhimäki London School of Economics and Political Science, U K	Dr. Anders Stephanson History Department Columbia University USA
Dr. Jonathan Haslam Corpus Christi College University of Cambridge U K	Stein Tønnesson Oslo, Norway
Dr. Torbjørn Knutsen	Artiom Ulunian Nobelsintituttet Oslo, Norway
Prof. Rey Koslowski Rutgers University, University Heights, USA	Prof. Antonio Varsori Facolta di Scienze Politiche Dipartimento di Studie sullo Stato, Universita degli Studi di Firenzi, Italy
Director Ned Lebow The Mershon Center USA	Dr. Odd Arne Westad Nobelsintituttet Oslo, Norway
Prof. Melvyn P. Leffler Corcoran Dept. of History University of Virginia, USA	Dr. William C. Wohlforth Yale University, USA
Prof. Wilfried Loth University of Essen Germany	Assoc. Prof. Shuguang Zhang Department of History University of Maryland, USA
Prof. Geir Lundestad Norwegian Nobel Institute Norway	Dr. Vlad Zubok National Security Archive The George Washington University, USA
Prof. Vojtech Mastny Norwegian Nobel Institute Norway	Prof. Oyvind Osterud Institutt for Statsvitenskap Oslo, Norway