Halle. Louis J. The Cold War as History.
New York: Harper Perennial, 1967.The “New Cold War History” Handbook
by
Malgorzata Gnoinska
for
Professor Andrew Zimmerman
The George Washington University
History and Historians
Hist. 201
Fall 2003
December 21, 2003
The purpose of this handbook is to introduce graduate students to a relatively novel field in history - “New Cold War History” - by providing them with information on the following topics:
Hopefully, the information presented here, albeit not exhaustive, will serve as a useful reference to graduate students who have chosen to be a part of this new, exciting and dynamic field in history.
What is the “New Cold War History”?
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European bloc in the early 1990s also meant that scholars, both from the East and the West, finally gained access to archival evidence that was inaccessible to researchers throughout the Cold War. Such unprecedented opportunities gave rise to a new field in history, often referred to as the “New Cold War History” or “The International History of the Cold War.”
The new evidence coming out of the archives of the former communist bloc supports a new form of revisionism, not the old revisionism blaming the U.S. for the Cold War, but a new revisionism looking at the importance of the superpowers' allies during the Cold War, instead of just at the superpowers themselves. Therefore, the field emphasizes the role of other players which expanded, intensified, moderated, and prolonged the Cold War just as much, if not more, than the superpowers themselves. Tony Smith of Tufts University has termed this a “pericentric” analytical model to studying the Cold War. Thus, the main goal of the scholars in the field is to examine the actions of other players and not solely the US-Soviet relations since, after all, the Cold War affected the entire world.
Major Journals for Cold War History
Cold War History
http://www.frankcass.com/jnls/cwh.htm
Cold War History
Department of International History
London School of Economics and Political Science
Houghton Street,
London WC2A 2AE,
UK
E-mail: cwh@lse.ac.uk
Fax: +44 (0) 20-7 955 6800
Diplomatic History
http://www.colorado.edu/history/diplomatic
234 UCB
Hellems, Room 204
Boulder, CO 80309
Telephone: 303-492-6683
Fax: 303-492-1868
E-mail: history@colorado.edu
The Journal of Cold War Studies
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws
625 Massachusetts Avenue, Rooms 254, 255, 256, and 102
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02139
Phone: (617) 495-1909
Fax: (617) 495-8319
E-Mail: hpcws@fas.harvard.edu
The Cold War International History Project Bulletin
Cold War International History Project
Woodrow Wilson Center
One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004-3027
E-mail: coldwar1@wwic.si.edu
Tel: 202/691-4110
Annual graduate student conferences organized by The UC Santa Barbara Center for Cold War Studies (CCWS) and the George Washington University Cold War Group (GWCW).
The conferences take place every year in spring and alternate between GW and UCSB campuses. They provide a wonderful forum for both Master’s and Ph.D. students to present their research and findings, and to network with other students and prominent scholars in the field of Cold War studies. Each student presents their papers as part of a panel, with formal comments given by a scholar working in their genre of Cold War studies. See http://www.history.ucsb.edu/projects/ccws and http://www.ieres.org regarding call for papers and conference locations.
Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) at the Woodrow Wilson Center
One of the major conferences this year was “New Central and Eastern European Evidence on the Cold War in Asia” held in Budapest from Oct. 30 – Nov.1. The conference was cosponsored with The Cold War History Research Center in Budapest and the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at GW and sought to provide a forum for the discussion of new findings on the Cold War in Asia from the archives of the former communist countries of Eastern Europe. Participants included scholars and graduate students from around the world who have recently mined the Central and Eastern European archives, most of which are far more readily accessible than comparative archives in Asia. Check the CWIHP website at http://cwihp.si.edu for past and upcoming conferences, as well as regarding call for papers.
Cold War Studies Programme at the London School of Economics
One of the major conferences this year was “Tripolar Diplomacy and the Third Indochina Conflict” where scholars from Vietnam, China, Russia, France, the United States and Britain gathered at a closed three-day conference from 13-16 May 2003 to discuss the international events leading to the Third Indochina Conflict. Check their website at http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/coldWarStudiesProgramme for information about past and upcoming conferences as well as seminars.
Summer Institute on Conducting Archival Research (SICAR) at The George Washington University
“The Summer Institute focuses on training graduate students to get the most out of their time conducting research in archives. There are sessions on how to prepare to go to an archive, how to structure your time in the archives, understanding how archival documents come to be written and deposited in archives, the challenges of interpreting archival documents, issues of culture and language in working in non-American archives, and how to search for information not in the archives, such as consulting private papers, making Freedom of Information Act requests for still classified documents, and conducting oral history interviews. Summer Institute participants are actively involved in reading archival documents (in English translation) provided to them during the sessions and discussing their interpretation. Check the IERES website regarding how to apply at http://www.ieres.org
Other Conferences
There are naturally many major annual conferences such as SHAFR (The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations), OAH (Organization of American Historians), AAS (Association of Asian Studies), AAASS (American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies), and many other associations related to your regional focus where papers on the Cold War period are welcome and can be presented. You can apply individually or put together panels. Check websites of these organizations and associations for details.
American Historical Association: http://theaha.org
Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy at Temple University: http://www.temple.edu/cenfad
CNN's Cold War series on-line: http://www.cnn.com/coldwar
The Cold War International History Project: http://cwihp.si.edu
The Cold War Studies Programme at the London School of Economics: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/coldWarStudiesProgramme
The Cold War History Research Center in Budapest: http://www.coldwar.hu
The George Washington Cold War Group (GWCW): http://www.ieres.org
Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS): http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/frus.html
Freedom of Information Act: http://foia.state.gov
The Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars: http://wwics.si.edu
National Security Archive: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv
National Archives and Records Administration: http://www.archives.gov
Open Society Archives at Central European University: http://www.osa.ceu.hu
Oral History Association: http://omega.dickinson.edu/organizations/oha
Organization of American Historians: www.oah.org
Parallel History Project on NATO and WTO (Warsaw Treaty Organization): http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php
Slavic, East European and Asian Reading Room at Gelman Library: www.gwu.edu/~seearr
The Society for Historians of American Relations (SHAFR): http://www.ohiou.edu/shafr/index.htm
UC Santa Barbara's Center for Cold War Studies: http://www.history.ucsb.edu/projects/ccws
Useful Databases for Documents
Declassified Documents Reference System (accessible through Gelman Library home page at http://www.gwu.edu/~gelman )
Digital National Security Archive (accessible through Gelman Library home page at http://www.gwu.edu/~gelman )
Virtual Archives of the Cold War International History Project at http://cwihp.si.edu
There is a multitude of books that have been written on the Cold War which focuses primarily on the US-Soviet relations. However, the current trend in the field is still to mine the archives from “the other side.” However, given that the archives of the former Soviet Union are not as accessible as they used to be in the early 1990s, and the fact that the archives of the People’s Republic of China, the People’s Republic of Vietnam, and Cuba are still closed, the more recent trend has been to conduct research on a variety of topics (i.e. Cold War in Asia) in the archives of the former Soviet bloc countries, especially Poland and Hungary, which seem to be most friendly in usage. Furthermore, many scholars have recently pointed out that the archives of Western Europe, and, of course, the United States, should not be forgotten, and thus are seeing many more books that make use of both sides. The trend is also to compile document readers on various events in the Cold War (e.g. The East German Uprising of 1953 and the Hungarian Uprising of 1956) that include analytical essays and commentaries.
The limited space does not allow such exorbitant list to be presented here. However, one classic that everyone, who is studying Cold War history, must know is:
Halle. Louis J. The Cold War as History.
New York: Harper Perennial, 1967.
Even though the “New Cold War History” has been in existence for only fourteen years, there are groundbreaking books and articles in the field which had already become classics:
Bekes, Csaba, Malcolm Byrne, and Janos Rainer, eds. The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: A History in Documents. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2002.
Chen, Jian. Mao’s China and the Cold War. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, 2001.
Gaiduk, Ilya. V. Confronting Vietnam: Soviet Policy Toward the Indochina Conflict, 1954-1964. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2003.
Hershberg, James G. CWIHP Working Paper #27 “Who Murdered the Marigold?”
Hershberg, James G. “Peace Probes and the Bombing Pause: Hungarian and Polish Diplomacy During the Vietnam War, December 1965-January 1966,” Journal of Cold War Studies 5, no. 2 (2003).
Ostermann, Christian and Malcolm Byrne, eds. Uprising in East Germany 1953: The Cold War, The German Question, and The First Major Upheaval Behind the Iron Curtain. National Security Archive Cold War Readers. Budapest and New York: Central European University Press, 2001.
Redchenko, Sergey. CWIHP Working Paper #42, “The Soviet’s Best Friend in Asia: The Mongolian Dimension of the Sino-Soviet Split.” (November 2003)
Weathersby, Kathryn. CWIHP Working Paper No. 39 “’Should We Fear This?’ Stalin and the Danger of War with America.” (July 2002).
Chen, Jian. China’s Road to the Korean War: The Making of the Sino-American Confrontation. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
Gaddis, John Lewis. We Know Now: Rethinking Cold War History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Gaiduk, Ilya V. The Soviet Union and the Vietnam War. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1996.
Harrison, Hope. Driving the Soviets Up the Wall. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003.
Logevall, Fredrik. Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999.
Mastny, Vojtech. The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity: The Stalin Years. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Naftali, Timothy and Aleksandr Fursenko. “One Hell of a Gamble”: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958-1964.
Selvage, Douglas. Poland, the German Democratic Republic and the German Question, 1955-1967. Dissertation Submitted in 1998 to the Committee at Yale University.
Smith, Tony “New Bottles for New Wine: A Pericentric Framework for the Study of the Cold War,” Diplomatic History, Vol. 24, no. 4 (Fall 2000)
Weathersby, Kathryn. CWIHP Working Paper #8: “Soviet Aims in Korea and the Origins of the Korean War, 1945-50: New Evidence from Russian Archives.” (Nov. 1993) at cwihp.si.edu
Westad, Odd Arne, ed. Brothers in Arms: The Rise and Fall of the Sino-Soviet Alliance, 1945-1963. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1998.
Zubok, Vladislav and Constantine Pleshakov. Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996.
*Also, see many more articles and working papers on groundbreaking research at the CWIHP website.
Research and Support in Washington, D.C.
Washington D.C. is a dream city for a historian interested in studying the Cold War. There is a plethora of resources that are available to researchers ranging from the possibility of interviewing US and foreign policy makers to conducting research at the National Archives and the CWIHP. Below please find information regarding the many resources you can use for your research:
The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP)
“The Cold War International History Project, founded in 1991, is by far the most useful resource for scholars and students in the field. CWHIP disseminates new information and perspectives on the history of the Cold War, in particular new findings from previously inaccessible sources on "the other side" - the former Communist world. The Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War, and seeks to accelerate the process of integrating new sources, materials and perspectives from the former "Communist bloc" with the historiography of the Cold War which has been written over the past few decades largely by Western scholars reliant on Western archival sources. It also seeks to transcend barriers of language, geography, and regional specialization to create new links among scholars interested in Cold War history.
Among the activities undertaken by the Project to promote this aim are a periodic Bulletin and other publications to disseminate new findings, views, and activities pertaining to Cold War history; a fellowship program for young historians from the former Communist bloc countries to conduct archival research and study Cold War history in the United States; and international scholarly meetings, conferences, and seminars.”
Website: http://cwihp.si.edu
Cold War International History Project
Woodrow Wilson Center
One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004-3027
Email: coldwar1@wwic.si.edu
Tel: 202/691-4110
National Archives at College Park
National Archives at College Park stores documents from numerous U.S. government agencies, such as the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the United States Information Agency, and many others. One archivist who you will find particularly helpful is Dr. Gustaffson with whom you can arrange an appointment through the research room at the Archives or prior to arriving at the Archives.
Website: http://www.archives.gov/facilities/md/archives2.html
National Archives at College Park
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
National Security Archive at The George Washington University
“The National Security Archive, founded in 1985 by a group of journalists and scholars who had obtained documentation from the U.S. government under the Freedom of Information Act and sought a centralized repository for these materials, is another "must" resource for those who are doing research in "New Cold War History." Although the Archive focuses primarily on releasing new US documents, they also have a rich depository of documents from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Korea, China, Japan, as well as documents from Latin American countries such as Guatemala, Chile, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
Over the past decade, the Archive has become the world's largest non-governmental library of declassified documents. The Archive is designed to apply the latest in computerized indexing technology to the massive amount of material already released by the U.S. government on international affairs, make them accessible to researchers and the public, and go beyond that base to build comprehensive collections of documents on specific topics of greatest interest to scholars and the public. National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Books provide online access to critical declassified records on specific issues, including U.S. national security, foreign policy, military history, intelligence policy, and more.”
Website: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv
The National Security Archive Gelman Library,
Suite 7012130 H Street,
N.W.Washington, D.C. 20037
Phone: 202 / 994-7000Fax: 202 / 994-7005
General: nsarchiv@gwu.edu
The Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact (PHP)
"In response to the progressing declassification of NATO documents and the growing availability of documents from the archives of the former Soviet bloc, the Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact (PHP) seeks to collect, analyse, and interpret these premier sources for the study of contemporary international history. By relating them to current security issues, the PHP enhances their understanding by highlighting how they differ from the recent past. It explores how the different alliance experiences have influenced the attitudes and behaviour of the present members of the enlarged NATO and the Partnership for Peace (PfP). The PHP is affiliated with the PfP as a member of the Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes and participant in its Archives and Military History working groups.
As a cooperative undertaking of institutions and individuals dedicated to independent scholarly inquiry, the PHP brings together archivists, historians, and government officials. They together locate, declassify, select, copy, translate, evaluate, and prepare for publication with commentaries archival documents from national archives in Europe and North America. The growing international network of PHP partners and associates benefits both the specialist academic community by providing new scholarly perspectives on the recent past and the wider public by multiplying the results of research in a readily accessible form. The findings are presented at conferences and published in print and multimedia volumes, as well as on this web site.”
Also see links for their partners in Europe and Asia
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/partners/network.htm
German Historical Institute
“The German Historical Institute (GHI) is an independent research institute dedicated to the promotion of historical research in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany. The Institute focuses on the following fields: political, social, economic, and cultural developments in both countries in their international contexts, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries; German-American relations; the roles of Germany and the United States in international relations.
The German Historical Institute in Washington organizes and supports the organization of conferences and lecture series; offers a number of awards and fellowships to junior and senior historians; publishes a series of reference guides, two book series with Franz Steiner Verlag in Germany and Cambridge University Press in the U.S., Occasional Papers, and a semi-annual Bulletin; maintains a research library on German and American history.”
Website: http://www.ghi-dc.org/index.html
German Historical Institute
1607 New Hampshire Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20009-2562
Tel. (202) 387-33 55
Fax. (202) 483-34 30
E-mail info@ghi-dc.org
Library of Congress (LOC)
The Library of Congress is another source that would be particularly useful if you are working on military and intelligence issues in the Cold War. Recently, the LOC received microfilm from central archives in European countries archives on military and intelligence (see "Cold War Archives: Joint Conference Concludes 'Open House Project' at http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0010/coldwar.html ). The LOC also stores primary documents from the Col War period, such as donations of documents from private donors (i.e. Volkogonov papers; see http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/text/volkogon.html). Finally, the extensive collection of newspapers from the Cold War can also serve as a great resource.
Slavic, East European and Asian Reading Room (SEEARR)
SEEARR is located at the George Washington University’s Gelman Library on the 7th floor (next to the National Security Archive). SEEARR has a wonderful collection of periodicals, journals, and newspapers from and pertaining to the Cold War. Many of them are in Russian and other East European (some in German) as well as Asian (Chinese, Japanese and Korean) languages. Perhaps the most useful part of their collection to those studying the Cold War is the collection of F.B.I.S (Foreign Broadcast Information System) materials which are daily reports of newspapers and newswires from all over the world which had been translated into English.
The George Washington University
The Melvin Gelman Library
2130 H Street NW
Washington, DC 20052
202-994-7005
E-mail: seearr@gwu.edu
Oral History.
US Government agencies, such as: the White House, US Congress, Department of State, the Department of Defense, the CIA, the USDA, and many others, offer wonderful opportunities to conduct oral histories. Perhaps the best way to begin conducting oral histories is to contact one of your professors who have already been in contact with some of the government officials. Another way would be to simply go to the website of these agencies and contact the persons you are interested in interviewing either by phone or e-mail, or through their secretaries. Contacting The Office of the Historian at the State Department can also be useful: history@state.gov
Research & Support Outside of Washington D.C.
Within the United States
Even though Washington D.C. is the most useful place for those who are doing the “New Cold War History,” there are numerous useful resources outside of the "beltway," such as:
· The East Central European Center at Columbia University http://www.columbia.edu/cu/sipa/REGIONAL/ECE/homepage.html
· Harvard Project on Cold War Studies http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws
· Presidential Libraries:
Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and
Museum
441 Freedom Parkway
Atlanta, GA 30307-1498
Phone: 404-331-3942
Fax: 404-730-2215
Email: carter.library@nara.gov
Website:
http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org
Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
and Museum
200 SE 4th Street
Abilene, KS 67410-2900
Phone: 785-263-6700
Toll Free: 1-877-RING IKE
Fax: 785-263-6718
Email:
eisenhower.library@nara.gov
Website: http://eisenhower.archives.gov
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and
Museum
1000 Beal Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2114
Phone: 734-741-2218
Fax: 734-741-2341
Email: ford.library@nara.gov
Website: http://www.ford.utexas.edu
Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and
Museum
2313 Red River Street
Austin, TX 78705-5702
Phone: 512-721-0200
Fax: 512-712-0236
Email: johnson.library@nara.gov
Website: http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and
Museum
Columbia Point
Boston, MA 02125-3398
Phone: (617) 514-1600
Toll Free: 1-877-616-4599
TTY: (617) 514-1573
Fax: 617-514-1593
Email: kennedy.library@nara.gov
Website: http://www.jfklibrary.org
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and
Museum
40 Presidential Drive
Simi Valley, CA 93065-0600
Phone: 800-410-8354
Fax: 805-577-4074
Email: reagan.library@nara.gov
Website: http://www.reagan.utexas.edu
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library
and Museum
4079 Albany Post Road
Hyde Park, NY 12538-1999
Phone: (845) 486-7770
Toll-free: 1-800-FDR-VISIT
Fax: 845-486-1147
Email: roosevelt.library@nara.gov
Website: http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and
Museum
500 West U.S. Highway 24
Independence, MO 64050-1798
Phone: 816-268-8200
Toll Free: 1-800-833-1225
Fax: 816-268-8295
Email: truman.library@nara.gov
Website: http://www.trumanlibrary.org
Outside the United States
Although the so-called “honey moon” is now over, since much of the evidence from the Russian archives is more difficult to access, and the archives in Cuba, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) are still inaccessible not only to Western, but also to local scholars, the archives in the former Eastern European bloc countries are widely open and thus serve as a “golden trough” for research on a variety of aspects of the Cold War. The archives in Poland, Hungary, and Germany are particularly accessible to researchers, both foreign and local. They are relatively efficient and easy to use, and staffed with friendly and knowledgeable archivists. Furthermore, the archives in Canada and the United Kingdom are extremely useful for doing research on all aspects of the Cold War. See below for websites:
National Archives of Canada: http://www.archives.ca
Public Record Office: http://www.pro.gov.uk
Archives in Germany: http://home.bawue.de/~hanacek/info/earchive.htm (this is a very useful website regarding all different archives in Germany, also has a link to archives in Austria and other neighboring countries)
Archives in Russia: http://www.iisg.nl/~abb (this is a very useful website on various archives in Russia)
Archives in Hungary: http://www.natarch.hu/mol_e.htm; Also contact the Cold War Research Center for access to archives at http://www.coldwar.hu
Archives in Romania: http://domino.kappa.ro/mae/mae.nsf/All/ArhiveEng
Archives in Bulgaria: http://www.memorial-cdjc.org/fr/guide/bulgaria.htm
Archives in Poland: http://www.aan.pl
Central Archives of Modern Records
(Archiwum Akt Nowych)
Ul. Hankiewicza 1
02 - 103 Warsaw
Tel: +48 (022) 823 00 42
Fax: +48 (022) 823 00 42
Archives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(Archiwum Ministerstwa Spraw Zagranicznych)
Ul. Taneczna 67, Warsaw
Although the George Washington University, which is doing cutting-edge research on the Cold War, is the only university so far that specifically created jobs for teaching the Cold War by hiring Professors James Hershberg, Hope Harrison and Gregg Brazinsky, there are many universities in the United States and abroad which hire professors whose specialties are: U.S. Diplomatic History, Eastern Europe, West European, Russian History, Japanese History, Korean History, Chinese History, Southeast Asia, or any other regional fields.
Moreover, given the international and interdisciplinary nature of the field, one is not restricted to work in the United States, as there are opportunities to teach in other countries and in other departments. Universities, such as McGill University, the London School of Economics, the Free University of Berlin, the Central European University in Budapest, Sorbonne University in Paris, the University of Lyon II, and the Moscow State University all offer, and highly welcome researchers and professors from the United States to join their staff.
Furthermore, the field of the “New Cold War History” does not restrict one to teaching jobs, as there are ample opportunities in pursuing a career related to research, analysis, or preservation of documents by working for U.S. government agencies, such as:
· The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA);
· The Office of the Historian at the Department of State;
· Department of Defense;
· The Central Intelligence Agency;
· The Library of Congress
· The Presidential Libraries (mentioned above).
Also, non-governmental agencies, such as:
· The National Security Archive;
· The Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars;
· The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC;
· The Council on Foreign Relations;
· College and university libraries in the US and abroad
offer opportunities for employment. Some who specialize in the Cold War also choose to pursue careers in journalism. In addition, Academy of Sciences in Russia, Hungary, and Poland offer job opportunities for historians.
How to find these jobs?
This past year, jobs have been offered, or are still waiting to be filled, for those specializing in History of U.S. Relations (Harvard University), U.S. History (UC Berkeley), History of International Relations (McGill University), U.S. Foreign Policy (Northern Illinois University), and East European History (Temple University), just to name a few.
· Talk to your professors and fellow students in your history department.
· Contact alumni from your department.
· Sign up for listserves of your own History Department or other organizations related to your field (i.e. Asian Studies Association) to get information of what jobs are, or have been, offered.
· Check bulletin boards in your History Department
· Check, and subscribe to, The American Association’s Perspectives in hard copy or on-line at http://www.theaha.org/perspectives Also, check the most recent reports on jobs in history at: http://www.theaha.org/perspectives/issues/2003/0312/0312new1.cfm
http://www.theaha.org/perspectives/issues/2002/0212/0212new1.cfm
· Check, and subscribe to, the Organization of American Historians at http://www.oah.org
·
Check, and subscribe to World
History Association at
www.thewha.org
· Check websites of history departments of the universities in which you are interested.
What Courses Can you Teach?
There is a variety of course that you can teach, and here are just a few examples:
-- International History of the Cold War
-- History of International Systems
-- Soviet Foreign Policy
-- U.S. Diplomatic History
-- U.S. Foreign Relations
-- Rethinking Cold War History
* If you are not interested in teaching, check websites of governmental and non-governmental institutions mentioned above.
Potential Dissertation or Research Topics
As presented above in the section on literature and recent dissertation topics, it is apparent that the field of the “New Cold War History” is changing. Although diplomacy is a main focus of the research of those studying the Cold War, much research has been recently focused on issues, such as: the role of culture during the Cold War; how the Cold War spurred and influenced modernization, and also the role of women in national liberation and underground movements. These topics will undoubtedly be pursued.
Moreover, much of the research had already been conducted on the origins of the Cold War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Sino-Soviet Split, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the Berlin Crises (1948-1949) and (1958-1961), Poland’s Martial Law (1981), and the Warsaw Pact. Therefore, although new evidence will undoubtedly surface and new aspects of the research will be explored regarding the topics already mentioned here, the new focus will be placed on geographical areas such as Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, particularly as far as the non-aligned movement is concerned (i.e. the role of India and Yugoslavia during the Cold War).
Furthermore, given the September 11 tragedy, many Cold War historians will be focusing on the Middle East (especially Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq) and US relations with the region. One of the reasons for this is to explore lessons from past and how they pertain to the current policy dilemmas.
Finally, topics such as coming to terms with the difficult past will be explored given the fact that the Cold War is over and much new evidence has surfaced from the archives of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries regarding the atrocities committed throughout the Cold War.
Grants for Dissertation and Post-Doctoral Research
Given the international and interdisciplinary nature of the field there are numerous opportunities for dissertation and post-doctoral grants. Many universities provide post-doctoral fellowships, so please refer to the websites of the universities you are interested in conducting your post-doc research. In addition to the support from your home institution or other universities, there is a multitude of governmental and non-governmental organizations and associations that can provide you with grants and fellowships for your research. Also, a good way to look for fellowship and grant opportunities is to go to the website of your home institution. For example, The George Washington fellowship website is http://www.gwu.edu/~fellows/fellows.html offers the following opportunities to its students who are studying the Cold War:
o Council for International Exchange of Scholars
o George Washington University
o National Research Council
o Woodrow Wilson Center
Other resources can be found at the following websites for dissertation and/or post-doc research. Check the below mentioned websites for details (i.e. application deadlines, requirements, etc.)
· International Research and Exchange Board (IREX): http://www.irex.org
· National Endowment for the Humanities: http://www.neh.fed.us
· Social Science Research Council: http://www.ssrc.org/fellowships
· The United States Department of State: http://www.state.gov
· Open Society Archives (OSA) at Central European University at http://www.osa.ceu.hu/grants/GrantsGivingPolicy.shtml
· The Norwegian Nobel Institute: http://www.nobel.no/index.html
· The Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies: http://wwics.si.edu
· The Davis Center at Harvard University: http://www.daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu
· The Free University of Berlin: http://www.fu-berlin.de
· The Kosciuszko Foundation: http://www.kosciuszkofoundation.org
· The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace: http://www-hoover.stanford.edu
Foreign languages are a must if one wants to be successful in the field, as much of the archival evidence is not in English. It is therefore a good idea to already have a working knowledge of the language before beginning research. However, if you do not have this skill and are willing to begin a new language, the best way to get training is to go to the country of your interest. If time does not allow for you to do so, you can go to Middlebury College for their superior summer programs (see http://cat.middlebury.edu/ls for details) or any other schools which offer the langue training you are interested in. You can apply for FLAS (Foreign Language and Area Studies) fellowships to help you finance your training.
The languages that are particularly useful in the field are: Russian, German and Eastern European languages, such as Polish, Hungarian and Romanian, and also, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish or any other languages of the geographical region you are doing research on.
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The “New Cold War History” is a rapidly growing and exciting field and therefore I hope that the information presented in this handbook will be useful. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at gnoinska@gwu.edu.