Flash Panel: “Glasnost and Gorbachev in 2022: The Old Cold War and Its End?”

The passing of Mikhail Gorbachev has revived memories of glasnost, perestroika, and the hopes for one free world that were raised by his turn toward openness and reform. Moving scenes of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 — a literal cutting of the Iron Curtain — were followed by a phase of enthusiasm for democracy and a smaller world. The end of the Cold War was celebrated in many countries.

Over thirty years later, in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, humanity finds itself in a very different world. Do the crises of 2022 cast Mikhail Gorbachev and the period in which he led the Soviet Union in a different light? Do they reshape interpretations of the Cold War, how it ended, or even raise the question of whether it did end? Is there hope for a less divided world? These questions will be explored by a panel of speakers from the worlds of diplomacy, policymaking, and religious faith, representing different experiences and expertise. This event was recorded on October 10, 2022.

Speakers:
Tobias Boes
Professor of German Studies, Department Chair, German and Russian Languages and Literatures
Faculty Fellow, Nanovic Institute for European Studies, University of Notre Dame

Dina Fainberg
Lecturer in Modern History and the Director of History BA
Department of International Politics, City University of London

Sławomir Łukasiewicz
Professor of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
Visiting Scholar, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
Kosciuszko Foundation grantee 2022

Serhii Plokhii
Mykhailo S. Hrushevs’kyi Professor of Ukrainian History and Director
Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

Moderated by Clemens Sedmak
Professor of Social Ethics and Director, Nanovic Institute for European Studies, University of Notre Dame

For more information visit the event website.