Cold War East-West Divide: Conflict, Cooperation and Trade: programme

Traditionally, Cold War was regarded as a political, military, economic, strategic or ideological conflict between the capitalist and democratic West, on the on hand, and the communist and non-democratic East, on the other. Benefiting from the opening of the archives both in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, scholars from different fields have begun to notice that the Cold War was also about many instances of cooperation and collaboration.
The aim of this event is to bring together senior and junior scholars from a variety of fields and research perspectives (Cold War studies, international relations, political sciences, history, economics, media studies, philology etc.) to foster discussion on East-West contacts, whether they were characterized by conflict, competition and suspicion or by compromise, cooperation and trade.
The event is organized by the Valahia University of Târgoviște, Romania, and by the Grigore Gafencu Research Centre for the History of International Relations and Cultural Heritage of the same university with the financial support of the Romanian Ministry of Research and Innovation, CNCS – UEFISCDI, Project number PN-III-P1-1.1-PD-2016-0184, within PNCDI III (Title of research project: The opposition within: Romania and the CMEA EEC policy, 1957-1989).
Languages of the event: English and French.

Venue: International Conference Centre of the Valahia University of Târgoviște, Romania (Address: Strada Maior Ion Alexandrescu, Nr. 39, Târgoviște)

  Thursday, 5 September 2019  
Dinner, Nova Hotel Restaurant Address: str. Arsenalului, nr. 14, Târgoviște  
  Friday, 6 September 2019  
08:00-9:00: Registration
09:00-9:10: Welcoming words, Professor Silviu Miloiu, Director of the Research Centre,  Elena Dragomir, Chair of the Organizing Committee
09:10-11:10   Panel 1: Foreign policy: Changing course or remaining on course?   Chair: Jun Fujisawa (Kobe University, Kobe, Japan)
09:10-09:30 Silviu Miloiu (Valahia University of Târgoviște, Romania),  The Romanian foreign policy change towards the Soviet Union: insights of pre-communist elites
09:30-09:50 Mioara Anton (Nicolae Iorga Institute of History, The Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania), Peak dictatorship. Ceausescu’s state visit to Great Britain, June 1978
09:50-10:10 Mircea Stănescu (The Romanian National Archives, Bucharest, Romania), Ceausescu en tête-à-tête. Relations roumano-américaines, 1981-1988 
10:10-10:30 Liviu Țăranu (The National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives, Bucharest, Romania): Romanian-Chinese relations between 1949 and 1989, an overview
10:30:10:50 Traian Sandu (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, France): L’impossible retour de l’enfant prodigue: Ceausescu et la réorientation pro-CAEM des échanges internationaux roumains, 1977-1985
10:50-11:10 Q&A
11:10-11:30 Coffee break
11:30-12:00 Book presentation: Traian Sandu (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, France) : Istoria Gărzii de Fier. Un fascism românesc, Cartier, Chișinău, 2019
12:00-12:30 Book presentation, Paschalis Pechlivanis (Utrecht University, Netherlands): America and Romania in the Cold War: A Differentiated Détente, 1969-80, Routledge, 2019
12:30-13:00 Book presentation: Silviu Miloiu (Valahia University of Târgoviște, Romania), Strategic Culture in Russia’s Neighborhood: Change and Continuity in an In-Between Space, eds. Katalin Miklóssy and Hanna Smith, Lexington Books, 2019
13:00-14:30 Lunch break Nova Hotel Restaurant Address: str. Arsenalului, nr. 14, Târgoviște
14:30-16:10 Panel 2: Across the Iron Curtain: politics, people, culture  Chair: Ryan Issa Haddad (University of Maryland, USA)
14:30-14:50 Vasil Paraskevov (Konstantin Preslavsky University, Shumen, Bulgaria): British-Bulgarian Economic Relations, 1944 – 1956
14:50-15:10 Paschalis Pechlivanis (Utrecht University, Netherlands): Beyond the ideological curtain: Ceaușescu and the Greek Junta (1967-1974)
15:10-15:30 Claudiu Oancea (University of Bucharest, Romania): Rocking Out and Outside the Border: Popular Music in the 1970s Socialist Romania and Its Exchanges across the Iron Curtain
15:30-15:50 Nicoleta Șerban (The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile, Bucharest, Romania), The situation of a Romanian dissident affects the relations with the western states:  Doina Cornea in the attention of the Free World (1989)
15:50-16:10 Q&A
16:10-16:30 Coffee break
16:30:18:30 Panel 3: Cold War economic relations Chair: Paschalis Pechlivanis (Utrecht University, Netherlands)
16:30-16:50 Aleksei Popov (Chelyabinsk State University, Chelyabinsk, Russia), Cooperation of the CMEA countries under Khrushchev: to the problem of motives for international cooperation – Skype presentation
16:50-17:10 Ryan Issa Haddad (University of Maryland, USA), America’s Commercial Cold War: Global Trade, National Security, and the Control of Markets
17:10-17:30 Adelina Ștefan (European University Institute, Florence, Italy): Between Comecon and EEC: Socialist Romania and the Challenges of Globalization in the long 1970s
17:30-17:50 Jun Fujisawa (Kobe University, Kobe, Japan): CMEA on the Eve of Perestroika: Summit Meeting of CMEA countries in June 1984
17:50-18:10 Dragomir Elena (Valahia University of Târgoviște, Romania): Romania and its ‘strategy’ towards the European Economic Community: the formative years, 1969-1974
18:10-18:30 Q&A
18:30-18:40 Closing words, Elena Dragomir
19:00 Dinner Nova Hotel Restaurant Address: str. Arsenalului, nr. 14, Târgoviște
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