Research Group for Cold War Studies
The main goal of the research group is to enable further advancement of Cold War studies in the Czech Republic and the increase of overall awareness of Czechoslovakia’s role in these nearly five decades of post-war history. The primary objective is to integrate, interlink and enhance the research of the Cold War and Czechoslovakia’s role in it and to gradually expand the scope of this research. For a number of reasons, research on the period 1945-1989 is crucial for understanding the roots of current conflicts and the deeper context of the current situation in many parts of the world, including Central and Eastern Europe. The very open access to archival sources in the Czech Republic also makes it possible to present a number of interesting suggestions to the international historical community and to present the possibilities and limits of the activities of the minor Cold War actors in a new perspective.
The research group brings together scholars who specialise in the Cold War history, but also external collaborators whose research also focuses on the problems of the post-bipolar world. One of the ambitions is thus to bridge the gap between Cold War research and the study of contemporary international relations.
The research group co-operates with the leading academic institutions of similar focus in other countries (e.g. National Security Archive in Washington, DC; Cold War History Research Center in Budapest; Harvard Project for Cold War Studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA), as well as with many leading Cold War historians. The group seeks to be an active member of the network of international research institutions on the Cold War and its impact on the contemporary world, the rigorous analysis of which has become particularly relevant in the context of the war in Ukraine.
Research Team
head: Smetana Vít
Bílý Matěj, Bortlová#Vondráková Hana, Koura Jan, Maršálek Zdenko, Pešta Mikuláš, Taterová Eva, Tůma Oldřich, Vilímek Tomáš