International Organizations and the Cold War - Competition, Cooperation, and Convergence

The post-WWII era was a time of superpower confrontation and antagonistic bloc politics, but it was also a period in which organized internationalism reached its peak as both an ideological value and a political practice. This open access volume explores how international organizations affected the evolution and nature of Cold War rivalries, and how they in turn were shaped by them.

In seeking to understand the role that international organizations have played as sites of confrontation, this volume also highlights their role as spaces for mediation and negotiation, particularly for middle-size powers and colonized or newly decolonized countries. Through multiple perspectives, based on a diverse array of historical sources, the authors collectively explore how international organizations were able to bridge and move beyond the Cold War divide by promoting common causes and shaping common scientific knowledge, communities and practices.

Rather than focusing exclusively on western-dominated institutions within the UN system which have received the most scholarly attention to date, International Organizations and the Cold War highlights the role of lesser-known groups such as the Paris-based International Child Center, the Prague-based International Union of Students and historical actors such as Soviet public health experts and Chinese development specialists. In doing so, it asks new questions about the role of international organizations in securing peace and security across the modern world, and their role as negotiator in times of tension and crisis.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction, Sandrine Kott, Eva-Maria Muschik and Elisabeth Roehrlich (University of Geneva, Switzerland and University of Vienna, Austria)

1. Dangerous Records: Controlling the Archives of the International Refugee Organization, Trudy Huskamp Petersen (Independent archivist, USA)

Conflict

2. International Law and Order in 1946: John Foster Dulles, Ralph Bunche, and the "Propaganda Game" at the Trusteeship Subcommittee, Christopher Dietrich (Fordham University, USA)

3. Territorial Conflicts on the World Stage: International Organizations, the "Third World," and the Global Cold War, Christian Methfessel (University of Erfurt, Germany)

4. Intelligence Operations and Nuclear Diplomacy in Cold War Vienna:
The Case of Stasi Espionage Against the International Atomic Energy Agency Simon Graham and Elisabeth Roehrlich (University of Sydney, Australia, and University of Vienna, Austria)

Mediation

5. International Organizations as Mediators in the Western Camp: The International Energy Agency and United States Gas Pipeline Sanctions, 1981-1984, Henning Türk (University of Bonn, Germany)

6. Experiments in Conciliation: The United Nations, Kashmir, and Decolonization, 1948-1950, Daniel Gorman (University of Waterloo, Canada)

Bridge Building

7. The Paris International Centre for the Child between East and West, 1949-1980s, Michel Christian (University of Geneva, Switzerland)

8. A Cold War International Organization Sliding Eastwards: Tom Madden and the Prague-based International Union of Students, Matthieu Gillabert, Lidia Lesnykh, and Mikulás Pesta (University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and Charles University Prague, Czech Republic)

9. Cold War Form, International Content? The Martsinovskii Institute, the World Health Organization, and the Wider Networks of International Malariology, 1950s-1980s, Marek Eby (New York University, USA)

Global Causes

10. International Organizations and the Issue of Natural Disasters During the Cold War, Lukas Schemper (Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin, Germany)

11. The Curious Case of Uruguay: The Role of State Actors and Victims Voices at the United Nations Human Rights Commission, 1976-1980, Debbie Sharnak (Rowan University, USA)

12. Getting Rid of Geopolitics: International Women's Rights in the Late Cold War, 1975-1995, Ioana Cîrstocea (University of Paris I-Panthéon-Sorbonne, France)

Scientific Expertise and Networks

13. From Political to Technological Leader of the Third World: Chinese Exchanges with United Nations Specialized Agencies in the 1970s and 1980s, Yi-Tang Lin (University of Geneva, Switzerland)

14. Antifascist Networks in International Organizations: Beyond the Cold War, Sandrine Kott (University of Geneva, Switzerland)

Bibliography

Über den Autor / die Autorin

Sandrine Kott is Professor of History at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Her most recent book Organiser le Monde (2021) studies the Cold War through the lenses of international organizations.

Eva-Maria Muschik is Assistant Professor in the Department of Development Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria. Her book, Building States, on the UN Secretariat published in 2022.

Elisabeth Roehrlich is Associate Professor of History at the University of Vienna, Austria. Her book Inspectors for Peace on the International Atomic Energy Agency was published in 2022.

Produktdetails

• Mitarbeit: David Brydan (Herausgeber), Sandrine Kott (Herausgeber), Eva-Maria Muschik (Herausgeber), Jessica Reinisch (Herausgeber), Elisabeth Roehrlich (Herausgeber)
• Verlag: Bloomsbury Academic
• Sprache: Englisch
• Produktform: Taschenbuch
• Erscheint: 01.12.2026
• EAN: 9781350423978
• ISBN: 978-1-350-42397-8
• Seiten: 272
• Abmessung: 156 mm x 234 mm x 25 mm
• Gewicht: 454 g
• Thema: Geisteswissenschaften, Kunst, Musik > Geschichte > 20. Jahrhundert (bis 1945)