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PROGRAM

10.00-10.15 Greetings and Introduction

10.15-11.30 Panel 1 Global South

Caterina PREDA – University of Bucharest
Trans-Regional Artistic Solidarity Between East-Central Europe and Latin America: Romania’s Relations with Chile and Cuba

Bogdan C. IACOB – “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History, Bucharest/ Institute of Habsburg and Balkan Studies Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
Overcoming Whiteness? Romanian Humanitarianism in Sub-Saharan Africa during the 1960s

Corina DOBOȘ – “George Barițiu” Institute of History/ National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism (Romanian Academy), Bucharest
Ego-documents for a Global History of Labour: Romanian Professionals and ILO Formation Stages in Organizational Health and Safety at the End of the 1960s

11.30-11.45 Coffee break

11.45-13.00 Panel 2 Media

Adrian MATUS – Central European University, Budapest
Kevin Devlin’s Desk: RFE as a Multinational Knowledge Corporation

Alexandra BARDAN – University of Bucharest
The Sky was the Limit: Satellite Dishes for the West in Late Socialist Romania

Maria ADAMOPOULOU – New Europe College, Bucharest
Romania as a Host of Exiled Communist Radios in the Cold War: The Greek Case

13.00-14.00 Lunch break

14.00-16.00 Panel 3 International Relations

Agnieszka KISZTELIŃSKA-WĘGRZYŃSKA – Łódź University
Polish Austrian Relations during the Last Peak of the Cold War

Anna GRAF-STEINER – Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on Consequences of War, Graz
Beyond the Blocs: Romania, the Neutrals, and the Making of the CSCE

Pascalis PECHLIVANIS – University of Utrecht
America and Romania in the Cold War: A differentiated Détente

Wanda JARZĄBEK – Institute of Political Studies PAS, Warsaw
Poland and the Dissolution of the Warsaw Pact

Daniel FILIP-AFLOAREI – New Europe College/ IICCMER, Bucharest
Romania and the Second Cold War: the Ideological Struggle for the Salvation of Communism in Poland

16.00-16.30 Conclusions

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SHORT ABSTRACTS

Caterina Preda – University of Bucharest
Trans-Regional Artistic Solidarity Between East-Central Europe and Latin America: Romania’s Relations with Chile and Cuba

This paper analyzes the cultural relations and artistic exchanges between the Socialist Republic of Romania (RSR) and socialist regimes in Latin America (Cuba and Chile) to illustrate the multiple geographies of East-Central Europe from a global perspective. This analysis proposes recovering an alternative geography of artistic exchange between the South and the East, in line with the approach of “cultural transnationalism” or “cultural internationalism”, and with consideration for the cultural institutional relations between socialist regimes, or the “socialist second world”. The study examines the Museum of Solidarity of Chile and its relations with socialist countries, as well as the relations between the Romanian Artists Union (Uniunea Artiștilor Plastici, UAP) and its sister organization in Cuba (Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba, UNEAC). The presentation argues that the artistic and cultural links between socialist allies aimed to create a different understanding of geography, based on ideology, which could be seen as part of ‘socialist cultural internationalism’.

Short bio: Caterina Preda (NEC Alumna), PhD, Habil. is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Bucharest. She teaches undergraduate courses on Latin American politics, Art and politics, and a graduate course on Cultural memory in South America and Eastern Europe. Her interdisciplinary research deals with art in dictatorships, artistic memory in post-dictatorships in South America and Eastern Europe (Chile and Romania) and cultural policies in autocracies. She is the author of Art and Politics under Modern Dictatorships (Palgrave, 2017). Her most recent research projects dealt with the case of the Romanian Union of Fine Artists (UAP), and the art and politics of memory of the dictatorship in South America and Eastern Europe”
(www.caterinapreda.ro, caterina.preda@unibuc.ro).

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Bogdan C. Iacob – ‘Nicolae Iorga’ Institute of History, Bucharest/ Institute of Habsburg and Balkan Studies Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
Overcoming Whiteness? Romanian Humanitarianism in Sub-Saharan Africa during the 1960s

In Romania as throughout state socialist Europe, medical assistance was a medium for showcasing anti-imperial solidarity with decolonizing peoples in Africa. The humanism of experts, illuminated through bilateral relations or in campaigns coordinated by international organizations, supposedly revealed their status as ‘better whites’: anti-racist, considerate to the needs of local populations, and altruistically supportive of their freedom and progress. Yet, I argue that socialist humanitarianism struggled to overcome whiteness, understood here as an unmarked category that structured the world and was based on hierarchies of civilization that are premised upon European superiority. Using the case of Romanian medical missions to Sub-Saharan Africa during the 1960s, I show how anti-racist solidarity intertwined with racializing conceptualizations of ‘tropical Africa’. I also situate Romanian agency in relation with push back from African actors, while also comparing it to other socialist humanitarianisms. The Romanian case exemplifies the white gaze of Eastern European medicine, which combined developmental and clinical evaluations of African bodies and spaces in order to define them backwards, incomplete and regressive.

Short bio: Bogdan C. Iacob is a researcher at the ‘Nicolae Iorga’ Institute of History (Romanian Academy) and at the Institute of Habsburg and Balkan Studies (Austrian Academy of Sciences). He has numerous publications about Southeastern European experts at international organizations (WHO and UNESCO) and in post-colonial spaces.

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Corina Doboș – ‘George Barițiu’ Institute of History/ National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism (Romanian Academy), Bucharest
Ego-documents for a Global History of Labour: Romanian Professionals and ILO Formation Stages in Organizational Health and Safety at the End of the 1960s

A founding member of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1919, Romania re-joined its ranks in 1956, following its admission in the United Nations Organization (1955).  Romania had a very fruitful activity within ILO especially between 1967 and 1975: 16 ILO conventions were ratified by Romania, various Romanian technocrats participated as experts in the training programs ILO organized in the Global South and to the formation programs offered by ILO in several domains (occupational health and safety, economic management, HR management). Romania was also beneficiary of the various programs of technical assistance and personnel formation supported by ILO, the most spectacular project sponsored by ILO in Romania being the organization in cooperation with the Romanian Government of a UN Center for the Training of Plants‘ Management (CEPECA) that functioned between 1967 and 1989 in Bucharest, assuring management formation for more than 16000 trainees, coming mostly from Romania. My presentation deals with the organization of the occupational health and safety services in Romania, which benefited by ILO assistance starting with the second half of the 1950s. Starting from various reports and documents identified at the ILO Archives in Geneva, I focus on some 20 training stages in occupational health and safety some middle rank technocrats from Romania undertook in various institutions in Western Europe (mostly in France, Italy, Belgium, but also West Germany and Switzerland) between 1968 and 1974. I treat these very detailed reports as ego-documents, exploring them not only from an institutional point of view (institutional positions, previous training and specialization, specific training arrangements, selection procedures) but also from the perspective of (socialist) subjectivities formation, specifically looking on the way various participants from Romania experienced the encounters, culturally, professionally and personally.

Short bio: Dr. Corina Doboș is senior researcher at the National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism (of the Romanian Academy) and at ‘George Barițiu’ Institute of History (Romanian Academy-Cluj Branch), and associated lecturer in History at the University of Bucharest. Fellow of Imre Kertész Kolleg, Jena (2021) and of New Europe College, Bucharest (2021-2022). Director of the research-project Crafting demographic knowledge in the 20th century: population and development in an Eastern European periphery (DEMOECRO), funded by CNCS –UEFISCDI (2018-2020). Postdoctoral research grants in the history of postwar demography at the University of Freiburg (2016-2017) and at EHESS Paris (2017). Research interests: history of science, history of medicine, population theories and policies in 20th century, expert knowledge formation, social history, global history.

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Adrian Matus – Central European University, Budapest
Kevin Devlin’s Desk: RFE as a Multinational Knowledge Corporation

One of the most influential, but equally misunderstood transnational institution during the Cold War is Radio Free Europe. While the existing scholarship largely focused on its role in anti-communist propaganda and dissidence formation, this study shifts the attention to the internal workflow and knowledge production, with a particular focus on Kevin Devlin’s collection. Born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland and graduated from Queen’s University in Belfast, Kevin Devlin worked for the Radio Free Europe as a research analyst for 39 years in the Communist Area Analysis Department on Non-Ruling Communist Parties.  His daily duty was to produce accurate reports about the activity of Communist Parties from non-socialist countries and over the years, this resulted in a vast collection [HU OSA 300-5-90 Records of Kevin Devlin and the Communist Area Analysis Department on Non-Ruling Communist Parties]: 141 boxes dealing with materials collected between 1960 and 1990 and contains press clippings, audience reports, research documents from more than 100 countries.

At a first glance, this collection contradicts the broader archival focus of Radio Free Europe Research Unit’s archive. Whilst RFE’s vast majority of the collection has as focus the activity of Eastern and Central European Communist Parties, this collection has as aim the activities of the Communist Parties from the rest of the globe. Kevin Devlin’s work sheds new light on understanding the role of professional networks’ role in knowledge transfers during the Cold War. The archived files nuance the institutional vectors and processes that generated meaning and assembled the Cold War reality. Throughout my paper, the main question is: what can this collection reveal about the RFE’s knowledge production? In this regard, instead of viewing Radio Free Europe as a ‘crusader of liberty’ as the traditional scholarship went along, I will analyse RFE as a multinational company.  As its headquarters were in New York, the broadcasting offices were in Munich, and the transmitting operator was in Portugal,  this situation involved considerable effort in terms of coordination, workflow and decision-making. The claim is that the structure of RFE closely followed the American business enterprise model in which its principal commodity was knowledge.

This approach in understanding RFE has a broader aim: to nuance the role of transnational organizations in knowledge transfer particularly during the Cold War. By reading the archival documents as multinational company records, the aim is to provide a deeper understanding of the workflow and working culture inside RFE, topic under-researched up to this point. Traditionally, historians focused on Radio Free Europe’s broadcasts in the context of the Cold War and the specific impact in Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria. In contrast with the existing studies, my goal takes a different approach. I aim to understand the corporate culture within Radio Free Europe and how this multiethnic context determined the decision-making process. At the same time, by referring to Kevin Devlin’s work, the second aim is to emphasize his particular role as a cultural and scholarly mediator in the process of knowledge production and transfer. By this, we can adequately understand Radio Free Europe’s workflow in a globalized context and, implicitly, the birth of Kevin Devlin’s collection.

Short Bio: Adrian Matus is an Editor of the Democracy and Culture section within the Review of Democracy. He earned his PhD in History from the European University Institute in 2022 and authored a book on the hippie movement in socialist Hungary and Romania. He previously studied at Université Sorbonne Paris IV and Babeș-Bolyai University. From 2020 to 2022, he curated the Communist Parties from Non-Socialist Countries collection at the Blinken Open Society Archives and continued this research as a Stefan Odobleja Postdoctoral Fellow at New Europe College Bucharest. He focuses on the history of socialist states, public history, educational outreach, archival dissemination, and oral history.

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Alexandra Bardan – University of Bucharest
The Sky was the Limit: Satellite Dishes for the West in Late Socialist Romania

In the late 1980s, as socialist Romania faced increasing economic hardship and international isolation, it unexpectedly entered the Western satellite television market. In 1988, Romania began manufacturing and exporting 1.20-meter offset satellite dishes designed for receiving Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) signals, particularly from the ASTRA satellite network. While Romanian citizens were subject to severe media censorship and restricted access to foreign broadcasts, the state paradoxically contributed to expanding Western television infrastructure by producing satellite reception equipment for external markets. This presentation explores the political and economic context that led to Romania’s involvement in satellite technology production, examining the tension between the regime’s ideological control over information and its pragmatic approach to industrial exports. Using archival sources from the “ICE Dunărea” fonds, it investigates the technological development, production strategies, and trade mechanisms that enabled these antennas to reach Western consumers. Furthermore, it contextualizes this industry within the broader framework of socialist Romania’s late-stage industrial policies, which prioritized hard currency exports despite internal shortages. By analyzing this overlooked chapter in Romania’s media and technology history, this research sheds light on the contradictions of socialist economic planning and its unintended role in global communication networks and economies. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between Eastern socialist economies and Western market economies, highlighting how Romania, despite its restrictive media policies, became both an importer and exporter in the transfer of knowledge related to advanced satellite communication technologies.

Short bio: Alexandra Bardan is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Bucharest. She received a Ph.D. in Information and Communication Sciences at Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle Paris 3 with a dissertation where she examined the emergence of an alternative media market within the cultural industries during the ‘70s and ‘80s in communist Romania. Her current research focuses on social history and everyday life in communist Romania, with  publications such as: (2024) “Paracinema in Socialist Romania During the 1980s. The VHS and the Emergence of Alternative Film Repertoires,” History of Communism in Europe 15, 1; (2022) “Breakdancing and ‘Pop Communism’ in Romania: avatars of English pop culture during the 1980s.” In Polatti A., Zanoni R. (Eds.), In-between “pop-” and “post-”: contemporary routes in English culture, Fano: Aras Edizioni.

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Maria Adamopoulou – New Europe College
Romania as a Host of Exiled Communist Radios in the Cold War: the Greek Case

The illegal radio station ‘Free Greece’ began broadcasting in July 1947 as a station of the Democratic Army of Greece, at first from the Belgrade and then in March 1948, from Bucharest. It interrupted the after the 6th Plenary Session of the Greek Communist Party in 1956, only to resume again from Bucharest on 1 March 1958, under the name “Voice of Truth”. From one half-hour broadcast a day in 1948, it went up to five daily broadcasts in 1962. After the split of the Greek Communist Party and the temporary suspension of its operation (1968), the station moved to East Germany, where it continued to operate where it remained until 1974. It made an admirable effort to adapt its shows to the changing times, surpassing the different obstacles posed to it due to its clandestine operation and the limitations posed by the Romanian authorities for reasons of security.

Short bio: Maria Adamopoulou holds a Doctorate in History from the European University Institute in Florence. Her monograph The Greek Gastarbeiter in the Federal Republic of Germany (1960-1974) appeared in April 2024 by De Gruyter. From October 2024 to July 2025 she has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the New Europe College in Bucharest, Romania, working on a project touching upon radio and migration during the Cold War. She has held various research fellowships including at the Center for Southeast European Studies in Graz, at Mirekoc in Istanbul, at the Democracy Institute of the Central European University in Budapest, at the NCCR-on the move in Neuchâtel and she has also been a Guest Lecturer at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest. From September 2025 she will be a postdoctoral researcher at the IEG in Mainz and a visiting fellow at the Zukunftskolleg in Konstanz. Her main research interests are social history, migration studies, oral history and memory.

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Agnieszka Kisztelińska-Węgrzyńska – Łódź University
Polish Austrian Relations during the Last Peak of the Cold War

The tragic events of the Polish crisis of 1980-1982 were presented against the background of Poland’s partnership relations with a wealthy, neutral Western country such as Austria. It was important for Poland to resume contacts if only with selected countries without the need for political concessions. In the analysis, particular emphasis was placed on Polish attempts to recruit Austrian politicians to overcome the political isolation in which Warsaw found itself after December 13, 1981. The narrative is divided into two parts: the first shows Austria’s attitude to reforms in Poland in 1980-1981, and the second, Austria’s reaction to the imposition of martial law in Poland. In the years 1981–1982, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs carried out intensive work to overcome the political isolation.

Short bio: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Agnieszka Kisztelińska-Węgrzyńska, PhD, is a historian and political scientist, graduate from Łódź University in Poland. Disciplines: foreign policy, comparative politics, international relations. Skills and expertise: diplomatic history, modern Austria, Austrian- Polish relations.

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Anna Graf-Steiner – Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on Consequences of War, Graz
Beyond the blocs: Romania, the Neutrals, and the Making of the CSCE

The Helsinki Final Act, signed on August 1, 1975, in a broader sense marked the conclusion of a long-cherished wish that the Soviet Union had been pursuing in Europe since the end of the Second World War: a final determination of the post-war borders in Europe. Yet, the CSCE’s outcome extended beyond superpower agendas, disproportionately influenced by states seeking greater autonomy: Romania and the neutral states. Romania uniquely championed both cross-bloc dialogue and CSCE negotiations occurring outside military alliances, a stance Bucharest successfully demanded within the Warsaw Pact.

Romania’s commitment to cross-bloc dialogue predates the CSCE. In 1965, Romania initiated the “Club of Nine” within the UN, a cross-bloc forum for exploring European security, including neutral Austria. This initiative faced Soviet reservations, stemming from concerns about Romania’s independent foreign policy aspirations. For neutral Austria, facing Soviet pressure to become actively involved in the Soviet/Warsaw Pact’s security conference project, the Club provided a showcase of its engagement in European security explorations. Despite its informality, the “Club of Nine/Ten” facilitated diplomatic ties, laying groundwork for future East-West dialogue within the CSCE. Focusing on Romanian-Austrian relations, this paper will analyze how Romania’s and the neutrals’ efforts contributed to a more inclusive and cooperative European security order by advocating for influence outside the established blocs, challenging the traditional narrative of Cold War hegemony and bloc politics.

Short bio: Anna Graf-Steiner is a senior researcher at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on Consequences of War in Graz, Austria. Her research focuses on: Cold War Studies, diplomatic history, neutrality and détente. (See in detail: https://bik.lbg.ac.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/05/CV_Graf-Steiner_en_2025.pdf)

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Pascalis Pechlivanis – University of Utrecht
America and Romania in the Cold War: A differentiated Détente

This study examines the US foreign policy of differentiation towards the socialist regimes of Eastern Europe as it was implemented by various administrations towards Ceausescu’s Romania from 1969 to 1980. Drawing from multi-archival research from both US and Romanian sources, this is the first comprehensive analysis of differentiation and shows that Washington’s Eastern European policy in the 1970s was more nuanced than the common East vs. West narrative suggests. By examining systemic Cold War factors such as the rise of détente between the two superpowers and the role of agency, the study deals with the dynamics that shaped the evolution of American–Romanian relations after Bucharest’s opening towards the West, and the subsequent embrace of this initiative by Washington as an instrument to undermine the unity of the Soviet bloc. Furthermore, it revises interpretations about Carter’s celebrated human rights policy based on the Romanian case, pointing towards a remarkable continuity between the three administrations under examination (Nixon, Ford and Carter). By doing so, this study contributes to the field by highlighting a largely neglected aspect of US foreign policy and uncovers the subtleties of Washington’s relations with one of the most vigorous actors of the Eastern European bloc.

Short bio: Dr Paschalis Pechlivanis is Assistant Professor in History of International Relations at Utrecht University and the managing coordinator of the Cold War Research Network (CWRN) in the Netherlands. He is the author of America and Romania in the Cold War: A Differentiated Détente, 1969-80 (A Romanian edition is published by Editura Litera) and The Vanity of Duty: Diplomacy, Letters and Dictatorship in the life of Ch. Xanthopoulos-Palamas [in Greek]. His research interests include the (Global) Cold War, US Foreign Policy, post-1945 Balkan History and new diplomatic history approaches. He is currently working on a history of the Balkans viewed as a Cold War microcosm.

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Wanda Jarząbek – Institute of Political Studies PAS, Warsaw
Poland and the Dissolution of the Warsaw Pact

The changes in the Eastern Bloc in the second half of the 1980s happened due to a number of reasons. In the mid-1980s, M. Gorbachev launched a policy of perestroika – changes internally, in the functioning of the Eastern Bloc and in international politics. In Poland, the first mixed government was formed in 1989, headed by non-communist Prime Minister T. Mazowiecki. How did the on -going changes impacted Polish stance toward the Warsaw Pact? In my talk I will focus on the governmental policy. On one side the easing of international tensions created favorable conditions for reforms, on the other hand the USSR still existed. In my talk I will show how the Polish government wanted to break out of the shackles of the Eastern Bloc, what strategies have been adopted. What was its attitude to the dismantling of the institutions of the Eastern Bloc – especially the Warsaw Pact, one of symbols of the Cold War period. I will try to show the changing attitude do the Warsaw Pact – showing also the ideas of the late 80-ties and ideas that emerged since 1989. I will try to reflect the complex international situation, consultation of the that time government with the allies from the Warsaw Pact and also other countries. The presentation will be based on archival documents from Poland and partly the former Eastern Bloc countries and Western countries and will refer to the literature on the subject.

Short bio: Wanda Jarząbek, Professor Dr. hab., works in the Institute of Political Studies PAS, Warsaw, now on Polish foreign policy during the period of transition from communism to democracy. In the years 2019-2022 vice-president of the Scientific Council of IPS PAS, in the years 2017-19 chair of the Eastern Studies Department. She was a visiting professor at the Maison des sciences de l’homme in Paris, a visiting scholar at Cold War International History Project in W. Wilson Center, Washington, a visiting scholar at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw. From 2017 to 2022, she was Poland’s representative at the International Advisory Board of the Mauthausen Memorial. Awarded the Honorary Cross for Science and Art by the Austrian Federal President.

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Daniel Filip-Afloarei – New Europe College/IICCMER
Romania and the Second Cold War: the Ideological Struggle for the Salvation of Communism in Poland

The Polish crisis of the early 1980s, embodied by the “Solidarity” Trade Union, was a double-edged sword for the regime in Bucharest. On the one hand, the existence of a trade union outside the authority of the party represented a flagrant violation of Marxist-Leninist dogmas; on the other hand, the possibility of a Soviet intervention in Poland endangered the very existence of Ceaușescu’s regime. This research is based on the hypothesis that the Polish crisis was not merely a regional one, but rather the outcome of a global crisis. For this reason, saving the Polish communist regime became a strategic priority for Bucharest in its approach to the crisis. In this regard, I will first analyze the causes that led to the outbreak of the Second Cold War and the increased tensions between the two superpowers. At this stage, I will also consider the sovereign debt crisis, which began to affect socialist countries as early as the late 1970s. Furthermore, I will investigate how Ceaușescu’s regime responded to the 16 months of Solidarity’s existence. The imposition of martial law in Poland and the internationalization of the crisis provide the framework through which we can understand the objectives and strategies adopted by Bucharest on this issue. The results of this research will help us better understand the effects of the 1980s crisis, especially the Polish one. To carry out this endeavor, I will use the diplomatic correspondence of the Romanian embassy in Warsaw and that of the Polish embassy in Bucharest. Additionally, I will analyze documents from the Political Bureau, as well as transcripts of high-level meetings, in order to understand how the situation was perceived. Romanian and Polish press sources will form the general contextual background of this work.

Short bio: Daniel Filip-Afloarei is a researcher at the Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism and Memory of Romanian Exile (IICCMER) and a former fellow at the New Europe College in Bucharest (October 2024 – July 2025). He is the author of the book Un deceniu zbuciumat. România și criza regimului comunist din Polonia în anii ’80 [A Tempestuous Decade. Romania and the Crisis of the Communist Regime in Poland in the1980s] (MEGA Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca, 2023), and many studies and articles on Romanian-Polish relations in the 1980s. His areas of interest include: history of international relations and diplomacy, history of the Cold War and history of Polish-Romanian relations in the communist period.