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Was 1921-1941 the first Cold War? Testing a Hypothesis
Historians habitually recognize the Cold War had roots predating the mid-1940s. I am writing an article testing the hypothesis that the Cold War began after the Russian civil war. I unpack the hypothesis by discussing six possible objections: the socialist-capitalist confrontation did not (fully) structure the interwar years’ inter-state system; the system wasn’t bipolar; the Soviet challenge to that system stopped with Stalin’s turn to “socialism in one country;” the US wasn’t yet central to that system; fascism created a tripolar reality; and nuclear weapons did not yet exist. The payoff of this exercise is that it qualifies some presumably distinctive features of 1945-1991.
Professor Cyrus Schayegh, Geneva Graduate Institute, with response from David Priestland, Professor of Modern History (St Edmund Hall)
Date:
2 December 2025, 16:00
Venue:
Balliol College, Broad Street OX1 3BJ
Venue Details:
Old Common Room
Speaker:
Prof Cyrus Schayegh (Geneva Graduate Institute)
Organiser:
John-Paul Ghobrial
Organiser contact email address:
moving.stories@history.ox.ac.uk
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Alexia Lewis
