Beyond The Divide Entangled Histories Of Cold War Europe [Hardcover]

Cold War history has emphasized the division of Europe into two warring camps with separate ideologies and little in common. This volume presents an alternative perspective by suggesting that there were transnational networks bridging the gap and connecting like-minded people on both sides of the divide. Long before the fall of the Berlin Wall, there were institutions, organizations, and individuals who brought people from the East and the West together, joined by shared professions, ideas, and sometimes even through marriage. The volume aims at proving that the post-WWII histories of Western and Eastern Europe were entangled by looking at cases involving France, Denmark, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, and others.

List of Illustrations

Introduction:Beyond the Divide

PART I: POLITICAL PROCESSES AND TRANSNATIONAL NETWORKS

Chapter 1.Opening Up Political Space: Informal Diplomacy, East-West Exchanges, and the Helsinki Process
Giles Scott-Smith

Chapter 2.Challenging Old Cold War Stereotypes: The Case of Danish-Polish Youth Exchange and the European D?tente, 196575
Marianne Rostgaard

Chapter 3.Transmitting the Freedom Virus: France, the USSR, and Cultural Aspects of European Security Cooperation
Nicolas Badalassi

Chapter 4.Cultural Diplomacy of Switzerland and the Challenge of Peaceful Coexistence, 195675
Matthieu Gillabert

PART II: INTERPLAY IN THE ACADEMIC CONTEXTS

Chapter 5.Expert Groups Closing the Divide: Estonian-Finnish Computing Cooperation since the 1960s
Sampsa Kaataja

Chapter 6.French-Romanian Academic Exchanges in the 1960s
Beatrice Scutaru

Chapter 7.Hungary Opens towalÓD