New Perspectives on NATO and the Euromissile Crisis

Nuclear Diplomacy in the 'Second Cold War': New Perspectives on NATO and the Euromissile Crisis

This workshop discussed new perspectives on the controversial deployment of nuclear weapons in Western Europe (‘Euromissiles’) in the early 1980s.

Drawing on newly declassified sources across different NATO member states and beyond, participants re-evaluated the role of nuclear diplomacy at the height of the so-called Second Cold War.

This workshop was a collaboration between the Open University’s Research Group on War and Conflict in the Twentieth Century and the Cold War Studies Project at LSE IDEAS.

Programme 

Opening Remarks

  • Dr Luc-André Brunet (The Open University/LSE IDEAS)

Panel One: The Euromissile Crisis: The View from NATO’s Nuclear Weapon States

  • Chair: Dr Luc-André Brunet (The Open University/LSE IDEAS)
  • Discussant: Professor Michael Cox (LSE IDEAS)
  • Oliver Barton (UK Ministry of Defence/LSE): ‘“The Most Staunch and Dependable of Allies”: Britain, INF, and the “Zero Option”, 1981-82’
  • Dr Andrea Chiampan (Graduate Institute, Geneva/King’s College London): ‘The First Reagan Administration and the INF Controversy: A “Pericentric” View, 1981-83’
  • Dr Ilaria Parisi (Sorbonne Nouvelle/Paris 3): ‘Leading from the Sidelines: French Diplomacy in the Euromissile Crisis, 1977-1987’

Panel Two: Peace from the Periphery? Reactions to Deployment Across NATO

  • Chair: Dr Luca Tardelli (LSE IDEAS)
  • Discussant: Professor Matthew Jones (LSE)
  • Dr Luc-André Brunet (The Open University/LSE IDEAS): ‘Unhelpful Fixer? Pierre Trudeau, the Euromissile Crisis, and the Canadian Peace Initiative of 1983-84’
  • Dr Eirini Karamouzi (Sheffield): ‘“At Last Our Voice Is Heard in the World”: Andreas Papandreou, Greece and the Policy of Peace during the Euromissile Crisis’
  • Dr Effie Pedaliu (LSE IDEAS), ‘Denmark in the Era of “Euromissiles” and “Footnotes”’

Concluding Roundtable: Reflecting on the Euromissile Crisis

  • Chair: Professor Mick Cox (LSE IDEAS)
  • Dr Luc-André Brunet (The Open University/LSE IDEAS)
  • Simon Webb, CBE (UK Ministry of Defence)
  • Professor Matthew Jones (LSE)

Workshop held March 26th 2018