INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY AND
THE END OF THE COLD WAR IN EUROPE, 1985-91
PART II SPECIAL SUBJECT
TRIPOS 2017-18, 2018-19
Prof. David Reynolds
The Cold War did not end in a third world war. Unlike earlier international crises during the
first half of the twentieth century (1914-18, 1939-45), the face-off between the superpowers
was resolved peacefully. Explanations for this dénouement remain matters of historiographical
controversy: Soviet implosion, American pressure, people-power, etc. This Special Subject will
focus on the contribution of international diplomacy, asking how far and in what ways
relations at the top between leaders helped construct a diplomatic settlement that facilitated
radical arms control agreements, the independence of Eastern Europe, and unification of the
two Germanies. But we will also consider whether some underlying problems of the Cold War
era have still not been resolved.
The paper will draw on the transcripts of key superpower meetings, especially those between
Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan/George H.W. Bush, from Geneva (1985) to Washington
(1990), and on newly-opened archives from both sides of the Cold War divide. These are
available in English and mostly online via the Reagan and Bush ’41 Presidential Libraries, the
Cold War International History Project, the National Security Archive and the Thatcher
Foundation. There should, therefore, be no copyright and reproduction issues.
This archival material will be contextualized through the memoirs of key leaders and advisers
and, more generally, via the analyses of recent historians. Although the superpowers will
receive particular attention, consideration will also be given to the role of specific Eastern
European countries (Poland and Hungary) in breaking the Cold War logjam in 1989 and to the
contrasting positions of West European leaders especially Helmut Kohl (pushing for German
unification), Margaret Thatcher (preferring a modified status quo) and François Mitterrand
(advocating a European solution to the ‘German question’).
The paper will also raise larger conceptual (HAP) issues: for example, the role and limits of
political agency in effecting systemic change; the cultural dimensions of international history,
especially perceptions of ‘the Other’; and the methodological challenges posed by practising
‘contemporary history’.
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PRIMARY MATERIALS
(1,675 pages)
American Presidency Project (APP) website: public papers http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/
- Reagan: 8 March 1983 (‘evil empire’) and 23 March 1983 (SDI); 13 Oct. 1986
(Reykjavik); 8 Dec. 1987 (INF Treaty) [16pp]
- Bush: News Conference, Paris, 16 July 1989; Remarks on relaxation of E German
border controls, 9 Nov. 1989; Q&A after Malta Summit, 3 Dec. 1989 [18pp]
- Bush: Address to Nation on military action in Persian Gulf, 16 Jan. 1991; State of
the Union address, 29 Jan. 1991 [7pp]
Bush, George H.W. Presidential Library https://bush41library.tamu.edu/archives/
- NSD 23, ‘US Relations with the Soviet Union’ [7pp]
- Memcon, meeting with Mitterrand, 13 July 1989 [3pp]
‘Bush and Gorbachev at Malta’ [Dec. 1989] NSAEBB 298 docs 3, 8, 10, 13 [= 47pp]
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB298/
Bush, George, and Brent Scowcroft, A World Transformed (1998), chs 1 & 2 [54pp], chs 5-8
[92pp], pp. 354-5; chs 20 to end [75pp]
[ = 221pp]
Dobrynin, Anatoly, In Confidence: Moscow’s Ambassador to Six Cold War Presidents (1995), pp.
477-639 [164pp]
Documents on British Policy Overseas (DBPO), series III, vol. VII , German Unification, 19891990 (2010), ix-xxxv, docs 48, 71, 85, 99, 103, 108, 111, 117, 131, 136, 151, 153, 155,
217-220, 242, Appendix (Chequers seminar)
[= 65pp]
‘The End of the Cold War’, CWIHP Project Bulletin 12/13 (Fall 2001)
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/bulletin-no-1213-fallwinter-2001
- ‘New Evidence on the “Soviet Factor” in 1989’ – Zubok, 5-23 [19pp]
- CPSU CC Politburo, 27-28 Dec. 1988, 24-29 [5pp]
- ‘Soviet Approaches to E Europe, beginning of 1989’ – Lévesque, 45-72 [28 pp]
- ‘The Political Transition in Hungary, 1989-90’ – Békés, 73-87 [15pp]
- ‘Poland, 1986-9’ – Machcewicz, 93-129 [37pp]
- ‘The Fall of the Wall’ – Hertle, 131-64 [34pp]
[= 138pp]
Gorbachev, Mikhail, Memoirs (1996), 401-550, 618-25
[= 158pp]
Gorbachev, Mikhail, Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World (1987), esp. chs
3, 6, 7 [= 91pp]
Gorbachev, Mikhail, speech to UN, 7 Dec. 1988 [5pp]
http://unix.ocis.temple.edu/~rimmerma/gorbachev_speech_to_UN.htm
Küsters, Hanns Jürgen, ‘Document – The Kohl-Gorbachev Meetings in the Caucasus in Moscow
and in the Caucasus, 1990’, CWH, 2/2 (2002), 195-235 [31pp]
The Reagan-Gorbachev Summits http://www.thereaganfiles.com/the-summits.html
- Geneva, 1985 [77pp]
- Reykjavik, 1986 [48pp]
- Washington, 1987 [53pp]
- ‘The Moscow Summit: 20 Years Later’, docs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10[pp. 67-71], 14, 15,
16, 17, 24, 26, 28 [70pp]
- New York, Governor’s Island, docs 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 11 [25pp]
[= 277pp]
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Savranskaya, Svetlana, and Thomas Blanton, eds, The Last Superpower Summits: Gorbachev,
Reagan, and Bush: Conversations that Ended the Cold War (Budapest, 2016),
- Washington and Camp David, May-June 1990, pp. 571-703 [132pp]
- Helsinki, Paris and War in the Gulf, 705-795 [90pp]
- Moscow, July 1991, 795-905 [110pp]
- Madrid and after, July-Dec. 1991, 907-93 [86pp]
[ = 418pp]
Thatcher, Margaret, The Downing Street Years (1993), ch. 26
[ = 47pp]
SOME KEY SECONDARY BOOKS AND ARTICLES
Garthoff, Raymond L., The Great Transition: American-Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold
War (1994)
Genscher, Hans-Dietrich, Rebuilding a House Divided (1998)
Gorbachev, Mikhail, Memoirs (1996)
Grachev, Andrei, Gorbachev’s Gamble: Soviet Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War
(2008)
* Leffler, Melvyn P. and Odd Arne Westad, eds, The Cambridge History of the Cold War (3 vols,
Cambridge, 2011), esp. essays in vol. 3:
12) The Gorbachev Revolution (Brown)
13) US foreign policy under Reagan & Bush (Fischer)
14) Western Europe, 1979-89 (Young)
15) E. European revolutions of 1989 (Levesque)
16) Unification of Germany, 1985-91 (Haftendorn)
17) Collapse of USSR, 1990-1 (Pravda)
24) Reflections on end of Cold War (Roberts)
Maier, Charles S., Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany (1997),
esp. chs 1-2
Mastny, Vojtech, and Malcolm Byrne, eds, A Cardboard Castle? An Inside History of the
Warsaw Pact, 1955-1991 (2005)
Matlock, Jack F. Jr., Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended (2004)
Plokhy, Serhii, The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union (2014)
Reynolds, David, Summits: Six Meetings that Shaped the Twentieth Century (2007), esp. intro
and chs 1, 7, 8
Sarotte, Mary Elise 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe (2009)
* Service, Robert, The End of the Cold War, 1985-1991 (2015)
Spohr, Kristina, and David Reynolds, eds, Transcending the Cold War: Summits, Statecraft, and
the Dissolution of Bipolarity in Europe, 1970-90 (2016), esp. chs 6 (Geneva-Moscow,
1985-8), 7 (Beijing & Malta, 1989), 8 (Caucasus, 1990), 9 (Conclusion)
Stent, Angela E., The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century
(2nd edn, 2015)
Wilson, James G., The Triumph of Improvisation: Gorbachev’s Adaptability, Reagan’s
Engagement, and the End of the Cold War (2014)
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Zelikow, Philip, and Condoleezza Rice, Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in
Statecraft (1997)
Zubok, Vladislav M., A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to
Gorbachev (2009), esp. chs 9-10
Békés, Csaba, ‘Back to Europe: The international background of the political transition in
Hungary, 1988-1990’, in András Bozóki, ed., The Roundtable Talks of 1989: The Genesis
of Hungarian Democracy (Budapest, 2002), 237-72
Kramer, Mark, ‘The Demise of the Soviet Bloc’, JMH 83/4 (2011), 788-854
Palmowski, Jan, and Kristina Spohr, ‘Special Issue: At the Crossroads of Past and Present –
“Contemporary” History and the Historical Discipline, JCH 46/3 (2011), esp. 485-530
Spohr, Kristina, ‘Precluded or Precedent-Setting? The “NATO Enlargement Question” in the
Triangular Bonn-Washington-Moscow Diplomacy of 1990-1’, JCWS 14/4 (2012), 4-54
Suri, Jeremi, ‘Explaining the End of the Cold War: A New Historical Consensus’, JCWS 4 /4
(2002), 60-92
Zubok, Vladislav, ‘With His Back against the Wall: Gorbachev, Soviet Demise, and German
Unification’, CWH 14/4 (2014), 619-45
CWH
CWIHP
JCH
JCWS
JMH
NSA
Cold War History
Cold War International History Project
Journal of Contemporary History
Journal of Cold War Studies
Journal of Modern History
National Security Archive
OUTLINE TEACHING SCHEDULE
INTRODUCTORY LECTURES/CLASSES (8 x 2 hours)
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
Michaelmas
From the ‘New Cold War’ to the new Soviet leader, 1980-5
Gorbachev and Reagan: Geneva and Reykjavik, 1985-6
Domestic pressures: Perestroika and Irangate, 1986-7
Arms control: Washington and Moscow, 1987-8
Eastern Europe: a failing bloc, 1981-9
1989: people power and international leaders
1990-1: German unity, European integration and Soviet collapse
Has the Cold War Ended?
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATIONS (8 x 2 hours)
Lent
GOBBETS CLASSES (4 x 2 hours)
Easter
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LONG ESSAY SAMPLE QUESTIONS
1) Assess the development of either (a) Reagan or (b) Gorbachev as a summit diplomatist
during their meetings from 1985 to 1988.
2) Analyse the motives and intentions behind Reagan’s policy on SDI during the course of
his presidency.
3) ‘Gorbachev’s policy on superpower relations was based on instinct more than
reasoning.’ Discuss.
4) To what extent did events on the ground within the Soviet bloc in 1989 force the hand
of leaders in both East and West?
5) How far and in what ways did international diplomacy among leaders contribute to the
peaceful management of political change in Europe in 1989-90?
6) Assess the contributions made by Shultz and Shevardnadze as Foreign Ministers to the
management of superpower relations, 1985-9.
7) Why was the unification of Germany accomplished peacefully?
8) ‘International mismanagement of the events of 1989-91 ensured that the Cold War did
not end but was only temporarily buried.’ Discuss.
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