探花直播 of Cambridge - David Reynolds

Opinion: Thirty years on as 'new Cold War' looms, US and Russia should remember the Rekyjavik summit

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 14:09:53 +0000

In what looks very like a tit-for-tat downgrading of bilateral relations, Russia and America have traded diplomatic insults in recent weeks over nuclear weapons, geopolitics and economics, prompting speculation about 鈥渁 new Cold War鈥�.

Moscow acted first, announcing on October 3 that it had suspended its agreement with Washington on the disposal of surplus weapons-grade plutonium. Russian president, Vladimir Putin, accused the United States of 鈥渃reating a threat to strategic stability as a result of unfriendly actions towards Russia鈥�. He cited the recent build up of American forces in Eastern Europe, especially the Baltic states.

For its part, the US suspended talks with Russia over the war in Syria, on top of its existing sanctions against Moscow over Russia鈥檚 2014 military actions in Ukraine.

How to escape from this standoff? Are there any lessons to be learned from the era of d茅tente and the end of the Cold War in the 1970s and 1980s? In particular, about the role of international statecraft and personal dialogue between leaders?

Icelandic freeze

October 2016 marks the 30th anniversary of the summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland which had aimed for an agreement on bilateral nuclear arms reductions. At the time the meeting was depicted in the media as a total failure, particularly over Star Wars, the US plan for a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile defence system. 鈥淣o Deal. Star Wars Sinks the Summit,鈥� Time magazine trumpeted on its cover with a photo of two drained and dejected men, unable to look each other in the eye.

How Time magazine reported the summit failure. TIME Magazine

探花直播last session ended in total deadlock between the two leaders 鈥� maybe a fateful missed opportunity. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know when we鈥檒l ever have another chance like this,鈥� Reagan lamented. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 either鈥�, replied Gorbachev. They wondered when 鈥� or even if 鈥� they would meet again.

This familiar, negative narrative was 鈥� and is 鈥� shortsighted. In reality, both leaders soon came to a more positive view of the summit. Far from being a 鈥渇ailure鈥�, Gorbachev judged Reykjavik to be 鈥渁 step in a complicated dialogue, in a search for solutions鈥�. Reagan told the American people: 鈥淲e are closer than ever before to agreements that could lead to a safer world without nuclear weapons.鈥�

Reagan and Gorbachev had both learned how open discussion between those at the top could cut through much of the red tape and political misunderstanding that ties up international relations. At Reykjavik, even though Stars Wars proved a (temporary) stumbling block, both sides agreed that they could and should radically reduce their nuclear arsenals without detriment to national security. And this actually happened, for the first time ever, just a year later when they signed away all their intermediate-range nuclear forces 鈥� Soviet SS-20s and US Cruise and Pershing II missiles 鈥� in Washington in December 1987.

探花直播treaty testifies to the value of summit meetings that can be part of a process of dialogue that deepens trust on both sides and promotes effective cooperation. Reagan and Gorbachev clicked as human beings at Geneva in 1985, they spoke the unspeakable at Reykjavik in 1986 with talk of a nuclear-free world 鈥� and they did the unprecedented in Washington in 1987 by eliminating a whole category of nuclear weapons. All this helped to defuse the Cold War.

It鈥檚 good to talk

Today, however, the world seems in turmoil and trust is once again in short supply. We seem to be back to political posturing, megaphone diplomacy and military brinkmanship. Is there is any place for summitry in a situation of near-total alienation? This question was, of course, at the heart of the easing of hostilities in the 1970s, when East and West tried to thaw relations and find ways of living together peacefully.

Helmut Schmidt, West Germany鈥檚鈥�global chancellor鈥� of the 1970s, was a great practitioner of what he called 鈥淒ialogpolitik鈥�. He argued that leaders must always try to put themselves in the other person鈥檚 shoes in order to understand their perspective on the world, especially at times of tension. He favoured informal summit meetings as a way to exchange views privately and candidly, rather than feeding the insatiable media craving to spill secrets and proclaim achievements.

Rapport matters. EPA/Stephane Mahe

In the early 1980s, when superpower relations were stuck in a deep freeze, Schmidt conducted shuttle diplomacy as the self-styled 鈥�double-interpreter鈥� between Washington and Moscow. Even when no real deals were in the offing, he believed it particularly vital to keep talking.

探花直播German chancellor, Angela Merkel, recently revived Schmidt鈥檚 approach, emphasising the need to maintain lines of communication with the Kremlin at a time of renewed East-West tension. Equally, however, she has insisted on the importance of a strong defence capability. Merkel is surely right. There is always a delicate balance to be struck between the diplomacy of dialogue and the politics of deterrence 鈥� making up your mind when to reach out and when to stand firm. Three decades on from Reykjavik, that remains the perennial challenge for those who have the vision, skill and nerve to venture to the summit.

David Reynolds, Professor of International History, Fellow of Christ's College, 探花直播 of Cambridge and Kristina Spohr, Associate Professor of History, London School of Economics and Political Science

This article was originally published on 探花直播Conversation. Read the original article.

David Reynolds (Faculty of History) and聽Kristina Spohr (London School of Economics and Political Science) discuss current relations between the US & Russia, and whether there are any lessons to be learned from the聽era of聽d茅tente聽and the end of the Cold War in the聽1970s聽and聽1980s.聽

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Reagan Bids Gorbachev Farewell

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Cambridge heads for Hay

jfp40 — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 09:20:09 +0000

探花直播Cambridge Series has been running for six years at the prestigious Festival and is part of the 探花直播鈥檚 commitment to public engagement. 探花直播Festival runs from 22nd May to 1st June and is now open for bookings.

This year's line-up includes Sir John Gurdon who was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that mature cells can be converted to stem cells. He will talk about his pioneering work on cloning.

Other speakers include Dr Ha-Joon Chang on economics, classicist Professor Paul Cartledge on after Thermopylae, Dame Barbara Stocking, former chief executive of Oxfam GB and president of Murray Edwards College, on the challenges for women in the workplace, Professor Chris Dobson and Dr Mary Dobson on Alzheimer's and other plagues, economist Professor Noreena Hertz on smart thinking and Professor Robert Mair on tunnelling into the future of our cities.

Professor Richard Evans, president of Wolfson College, will talk about the history of conspiracy theories, Dr John Swenson-Wright from the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies will ask if North Korea is the perennial crisis state and Dr Robin Hesketh from the Department of Biochemistry will attempt to demystify cancer.

Several of the talks will take the form of a conversation: Professor Simon Blackburn will debate the uses and abuses of self love with journalist Rosie Boycott; novelist and playwright Biyi Bandele, a former Judith E. Wilson Fellow at Churchill College, will be in conversation with Dr Malachi McIntosh from the Department of English about migrant writing; Professor Henrietta Moore, William Wyse Chair of Social Anthropology, will talk about the future of civil activism with Ricken Patel, founding President of Avaaz, the world's largest online activist community; and psychologist Dr Terri Apter will debate how women follow, resist and play with the stereotypes that define them with author and alumna Zoe Strimpel.

Other Cambridge academics speaking at Hay are Professor Stefan Collini聽discussing higher education鈥檚 two cultures - the humanities and science - and historian Professor David Reynolds.

Peter Florence, director of the Hay Festival, said: "Cambridge 探花直播 nurtures and challenges the world's greatest minds, and offers the deepest understanding of the most intractable problems and the most thrilling opportunities. And for one week a year they bring that thinking to a field in Wales and share it with everyone. That's a wonderful gift."

Nicola Buckley, head of public engagement at the 探花直播 of Cambridge, said: 鈥� 探花直播Cambridge series is a wonderful way to share fascinating research from the 探花直播 with the public. 探花直播Hay Festival draws an international cross-section of people, from policy makers to prospective university students. We have found that Hay audiences are highly interested in the diversity of Cambridge speakers, and ask some great questions. We look forward to another fantastic series of speakers, with talks and debates covering so many areas of research and key ideas emerging from Cambridge, relevant to key issues faced globally today."

For tickets, go to: www.hayfestival.org

A host of Cambridge academics, including Nobel Laureate Sir John Gurdon, will be speaking on subjects ranging from stem cell technology and Alzheimer鈥檚 to the future of North Korea and the history of conspiracy theories at this year鈥檚 Hay Festival.

Cambridge 探花直播 nurtures and challenges the world's greatest minds, and offers the deepest understanding of the most intractable problems and the most thrilling opportunities

Peter Florence, Director of Hay Festival

Hay Festival

Night shot at Hay Festival

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An American Tale

bjb42 — Mon, 31 May 2010 12:24:40 +0000

When Professor David Reynolds told people he was making Radio 4's flagship history of the United States, America, Empire Of Liberty, one of the first questions they usually asked was how many episodes long it was going to be. "Ninety," came the reply. There would be a pause. "Nineteen?" they sought to clarify. "No," said Reynolds. "nine-zero".

"There would be an even longer pause," he added. "And then they would start to talk about the weather."

Ninety episodes certainly sounds like a lot, but, as Reynolds quickly worked out, when attempting to cover the entire history of America, it amounts to very little. "I started with the hypothesis that for every sentence I wrote, someone else had written a PhD thesis," he told his audience at Hay. "There was no chance that I could produce a definitive piece of work. But that is a term I despise. Nothing in history is definitive, it is always a part of our personal engagement with the material which is available."

What sounded like mission impossible soon became liberating, however. Reynolds was forced to accept that in producing the programme and subsequent book (recently released in paperback), he would of necessity be compelled to offer his own insights while at the same time accepting that the views of others might be entirely different.

What he calls the "contours" of the series were easy to define. "I had a sense of the overall pattern," he said. "I also had a fairly sharp sense of the themes I wanted to address." These were three paradoxes he regards as central to the American story. America is, he says, a modern Empire whose founding fathers rejected European Imperialism. It proclaims fundamental principles of liberty but was founded on human bondage. And while it also proclaimed fundamental principles of remarkable religious toleration from the outset, its politics have been animated again and again, for better and for worse, by evangelical Protestantism. "This is a secular state energised by Godly ambition," Reynolds succinctly put it.

So far, so good in his 90-episode distillation project, but the real challenge was how to grab the attention of his audience and keep it. Reynolds realised that he had no idea about whom he would be trying to address during the course of his series. With the help of his producer, he started to thrash out a portrait of the demographic. Each 15-minute episode, broadcast at 3.45pm, would be tuned into by a combination of mums on school runs, commuters stuck in traffic jams and a surprising number of people on tea breaks. Each Friday, an audience would also tune into a longer omnibus edition, compiling that week's broadcasts. "I quickly learned that particular audience would be unwinding at the end of the week over a glass of wine, so the main challenge there was to stop them from falling asleep," Reynolds said.

He realised that the best way to convey the scope of American history to this diverse group of listeners in the time and space available was to focus on stories. "You can't produce a lot of facts," Reynolds said, "because people will doze off. And unlike television there are no images. I began to realise that I had to supply the images and find things to say that would trigger pictures in people's minds."

Although Reynolds believes that the professionalisation of history has, for the most part, been a force for good, he does think that this art of storytelling has to some extent been lost in the process. "Storytelling is a slightly unfashionable way of doing history," he said. "I think that's a pity because they are a part of history. In most of the Romance languages, the word 'history' and the word 'story' are closely related. Stories that place these events in time are fundamental to what it is for us to be human beings."

Using a combination of online resources and those held at Cambridge 探花直播 Library, Reynolds found the snippets, quotations and anecdotes that he needed to bring his radio history to life. He played just one back to his audience this morning - an extract from one of many letters written by Abraham Lincoln to the relatives of soldiers who had died in battle during the American Civil War. "I could have gone on for a long time about the anguish that Lincoln felt about the men he was sending to their deaths and the families he was bereaving," Reynolds said. "But that letter reflects more about the President than anything I could have written. It still moves me listening to it now."

Turning the series into a book was liberating again in its own right. While retaining the episodic character of the radio broadcasts, he found that the written form allowed him to throw in some of the facts and statistics he had previously been asked to axe by his producer. Population history and more studied approaches to economic history both flourish in the book where for radio listeners they might well have proven soporific.

Reynolds remains enthusiastic about combining different forms of history for the sake of conveying it to as wide an audience as possible and feels he learned much from his Radio 4 experience when it comes to grabbing the attention of listeners. His next project, "Nixon In 探花直播Den" will be broadcast on BBC Four (the television station) in the near future and explores "the darker side of Richard Nixon" over the course of a single programme. As for his 90-part marathon on the history of America; Reynolds is currently listening to Radio 4's History Of 探花直播World In 100 Objects and feels he got off fairly lightly. "I reflect that this series has just 100 episodes to tell the story of the entire world," he said. "I feel I was pretty lucky to get 90."

David Reynolds' attempt to tell the history of America in 90 episodes in the landmark Radio 4 series, "America, Empire Of Liberty" set Cambridge's Professor of International History all sorts of interesting challenges. As he revealed to his audience at Hay, it also forced him to adopt a refreshingly story-based approach to one of history's most epic tales.

I started with the hypothesis that for every sentence I wrote, someone else had written a PhD thesis

David Reynolds

Christopher Macsurak from Flickr

Chicago Skyline

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