In 1989 and 1990 the map of Europe was redrawn without a war, unlike other great ruptures of the international order such as 1815, 1870, 1918, and 1945. How did this happen? This major multinational study, based on archives from both sides of the 'Iron Curtain', highlights the contribution of international statecraft to the peaceful dissolution of Europe's bipolar order by examining pivotal summit meetings from 1970 to 1990. These are organized into three periods: 'Thawing', 'Living with', and 'Transcending' the Cold War. The volume offers fascinating insights into key statesmen such as Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, Leonid Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev, Willy Brandt and Helmut Kohl, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. It explores the central issues of the superpowers and arms control, their triangular relationship with China, and the seemingly intractable German question. Particular attention is devoted to the cultural dimensions of summitry, as performative acts for the media and as encounters with 'the Other' across ideological divides. All these threads are drawn together in a sweeping analytical conclusion. Written in lively prose, Transcending the Cold War is essential reading for anyone interested not just in modern history but also current international affairs.

This major multinational study, based on archives from both sides of the 'Iron Curtain', seeks to understand the role played by international summitry in the denouement of the Cold War, examining the thoughts and actions of key leaders and addressing international relations issues that still shape the world today

In 1989 and 1990 the map of Europe was redrawn without a war, unlike other great ruptures of the international order such as 1815, 1870, 1918, and 1945. How did this happen? This major multinational study, based on archives from both sides of the 'Iron Curtain', highlights the contribution of international statecraft to the peaceful dissolution of Europe's bipolar order by examining pivotal summit meetings from 1970 to 1990. These are organized into three periods: 'Thawing', 'Living with', and 'Transcending' the Cold War. The volume offers fascinating insights into key statesmen such as Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, Leonid Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev, Willy Brandt and Helmut Kohl, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. It explores the central issues of the superpowers and arms control, their triangular relationship with China, and the seemingly intractable German question. Particular attention is devoted to the cultural dimensions of summitry, as performative acts for the media and as encounters with 'the Other' across ideological divides. All these threads are drawn together in a sweeping analytical conclusion. Written in lively prose, Transcending the Cold War is essential reading for anyone interested not just in modern history but also current international affairs.

Throughout the Cold War, scholars and artists from Eastern Europe and from the West brokered official and informal ties between their separate geopolitical “worlds.” Simultaneously they built transnational networks that functioned within the interconnected “worlds” of literature, music, or history writing. In this dissertation, I explore such professional interactions that bridged across the Iron Curtain, like scholarship programs, international conferences, and literary residencies. I ask why states on different sides of the geopolitical struggle made Cold War encounters possible and how the participating individuals experienced them. While I focus on Hungarian-U.S. relations, I offer generalizable insights for East European region and the wider global context. My work questions the historiographic narrative on the division and total competition between “East” and “West.” Through this approach, I join a wave of new research that rejects the idea of the supposed isolation of Soviet bloc countries, aiming to reimagine the Cold War through the lens of transnational history. I show that because the cultural and educational exchanges of the period were created through the meeting of geopolitical and professional aims, connecting the national and the global dimensions, they functioned as transnational projects. I argue that by examining such Cold War encounters from the perspective of Hungarian and U.S. cultural and academic elites – who acted as transnational mediators – the established image of zero-sum geopolitical confrontation needs to be counterbalanced by that of cooperation and mutuality. To demonstrate this, I analyze the entwined and conflicting agendas of authorities, institutions, and intellectuals. I show how governments and their intelligence agencies wanted to instrumentalize scholars and artists for geopolitical purposes – and how these non-state actors used the framework of the Cold War as a tool for professional development and institution-building. Throughout the dissertation, I map scholarly and artistic networks that, although born of a geopolitical conflict and funded with ideological aims, managed to transcend the strict constrains of the Cold War and produce enduring ties and knowledge. By highlighting the experiences and voices of such transnational intermediaries, I strive to return agency to the diverse non-state actors navigating geopolitical pressures, thereby reclaiming their “hearts and minds.”

‘A gripping and compelling account.... The peaceful ending of the Cold War between West and East remains one of the greatest achievements of modern statecraft’ CHRISTOPHER ANDREW, Literary Review This landmark global study makes us rethink what happened when the Cold War ended and our present era was born.