NATO, the Warsaw Pact and Détente, 1965-1973

International Conference
Dobbiaco/Toblach, Kulturzentrum, September 26-28, 2002

Call for papers

In the last two decades historical research on the passage from the origins of the Cold war to its stabilisation in the 1950s and on the crises of the late 1950s and early 1960s has produced a remarkable output of scholarly studies, which have benefited from a growing variety of archival sources. As one moves on into the mid and late 1960s, however, we are still far from having at our disposal a broad historical database shedding light on some of the crucial international problems of these years. While the figures of Johnson, Nixon and Kissinger and the policies of their administrations have been the object of much research, we think it necessary to integrate the increasing number of studies of their foreign policy into the larger picture of a true history of the evolution of the international system. By focussing on the two superpowers and on their gradual move from confrontation to détente, in particular, historical research has somewhat neglected the tensions and anxieties that accompanied the rise of détente inside the two camps, and their impact on the behaviour of the leaders of each bloc. What we think is missing, therefore, is a reconstruction based on fresh archival sources of the mistrust, fear and uncertainty that the process engineered in the relationship between the US and its Western European partners, of the suspicions with which many Europeans watched the developing dialogue in the field of arms control, and of the puzzlement generated by the growing predicament of the US in the jungles of Vietnam. At the same time, very little is known about the perceptions of détente in the countries of the Eastern bloc, about the aftermath of the repression of the Prague spring, or about the impact on the Warsaw pact of the Sino-Soviet clashes.

The conference organized by the Machiavelli Center for Cold War studies, in cooperation with the Cold War International History Project, the French Group Diplomatie et Stratégie, the Parallel History Project, and the Miller Center for Presidential Studies, wants to bring to the fore the most innovative results of recent historical research on detente, to encourage further investigations on all of its facets, and to allow scholars the opportunity to have a relaxed and free-flowing exchange of ides on the state of the art.

The conference will be held in Italy on September 26-28, 2002, in the heart of the Dolomites, at the Kulturzentrum of the beautiful town of Dobbiaco/Toblach.

The conference organizers invite proposals for papers on any aspect of the history of détente between 1965 and 1973, with special emphasis on the impact of détente on NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Proposals should include: paper title, abstract, and one-page C.V.

Among topics to be discussed, preference will be given to papers touching on any of the following subjects:

- Arms control, the NPT and SALT, the early stages of CSCE and MBFR
- The Warsaw Pact crisis
- Western Europe and détente; tensions in the Western bloc
- Ostpolitk: views from East and West
- The Middle East from 1967 to 1973
- The first Nixon administration
- Monetary and Economic Crises, 1967-1973
- The Cold war at the periphery: Latin America and South-East Asia
- The climax of the Sino-Soviet split

The deadline for submission of a proposal is February 15, 2002. Papers should be ready by mid-August and the final invitation to the conference will be contingent on the submission of the final text. Scholars who intend to receive comments on their first drafts should submit their papers by June 1st, 2002.

The full conference program will be available soon, and precirculated papers will appear in late August 2002 on the websites of the Machiavelli Center for Cold war studies, the CWIHP and the PHP.

Please submit proposals via e-mail if at all possible, or send by regular mail to:

Professor Ennio Di Nolfo ([email protected])
Director, Machiavelli Center for Cold War Studies
Università degli Studi di Firenze
Via Laura 48
50121 FIRENZE Italy


A copy of the proposal should also be addressed to the Conference staff:

Dr. Massimiliano Cricco, ([email protected])
Dr. Sandra Cavallucci, ([email protected])


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