NEWS MEDIA ADVISORY

1997 JOHN AND ELIZABETH BAKER PEACE STUDIES CONFERENCE MAY 9-11

Sponsored by the Baker Peace Studies Program and the Contemporary History Institute

Attn. Editors, News Directors: All of the following conferences are open to the public.

The New Cold War History

The Cold War's end made it possible, for the first time, to begin to do Cold War history in the "normal" way: that is, by having access to documents from each of the major participants in the conflict under investigation, and by knowing the outcome. As a consequence, the past half decade has witnessed a fundamental reassessment of this field, led by a new generation of international historians, several of them from the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and the People's Republic of China. The implications for the writing and teaching of recent history -- as well as for the theories upon which our understanding of world politics is based -- are likely to be profound.

This conference will bring the most important practitioners of the "new" Cold War history together with established historians in that and related fields to consider where we now stand and what we now know.

SCHEDULE

Friday, May 9
Ballroom, Ohio University Inn

9:00-9:15 a.m.: Welcome and Introductions

• Chester Pach, Director, Contemporary History Institute and Baker Peace Studies Program
• John Gaddis, Conference Organizer

9:15-10:30 a.m.: How Should We Study the Cold War?

• Richard Ned Lebow, Mershon Center, The Ohio State University

10:45-12:30 p.m.: New Findings: The Soviet Union

• Vojtech Mastny, Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center
• Tim Naftali, Olin Fellow, Yale University
• Kathryn Weathersby, Independent Scholar
• Vladislav Zubok, National Security Archive

1:45-3:30 p.m.: New Findings: China

• Chen Jian, Fellow, United States Institute of Peace
• Michael Sheng, Southwest Missouri State University
• Zhai Qiang, Auburn University, Montgomery
• Shu Guang Zhang, University of Maryland, College Park

3:45-4:30 p.m.: Open Discussion
Lounge, Ping Recreation Center

7:30 p.m.: Evening Presentation
The Sino-Soviet Relationship

• Odd Arne Westad, Norwegian Nobel Institute

Saturday, May 10
121B Computer Services Center

9:00-10:15 a.m.: Rethinking the Cold War

10:30-12:15 p.m.: New Findings: Germany and Eastern Europe

• Csaba Bekes, Institute for the Study of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution
• Leo Gluchowski, University of Toronto
• Hope Harrison, Lafayette College
• Christian Ostermann, National Security Archive and Cold War International History Project

1:30-3:15 p.m.: New Findings: The Third World

• Mark Bradley, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
• Jim Hershberg, George Washington University
• Douglas MacDonald, Colgate University

3:30-4:30 p.m.: Open Discussion

8:00 p.m.: Evening Presentation
The Making of "Cold War": A Television Documentary

• Jeremy Isaacs, Taylor Downing, and Martin Smith,
  Jeremy Isaacs Productions

Sunday, May 11
Ballroom, Ohio University Inn

9:00-10:00 a.m.: Update on Cold War history research projects

• Cold War International History Project
• H-DIPLO/Diplomatic History
• National Security Archive
• Harvard University
• The Ohio State University
• Yale University

10:00-10:45 a.m.: Discussion of future priorities

10:45-11:30 a.m.: Concluding Observations

• William Taubman, Amherst College