The Research Project

During the Cold War, a large number of long-term working groups engaging in in-depth expert discussions were hosted permanently in Austria. The city of Vienna, which is still an under-researched arena of the Cold War, was a perfect location as it was situated in a neutral country close to the Iron Curtain but with strong western ties. In this sense Vienna became a hub for the exchange of concepts and ideas in both directions which will be reconstructed and analysed in the research project using the following case studies:

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) was established in 1972 as a special international research organisation by twelve countries (including the two superpowers) to 'build a common future'.  The Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) was founded by the philosopher Krzysztof Michalski in 1982 with the aim to reintegrate ideas and experiences of Eastern Europe into western academic debates.

Objectives
Following the hypothesis that not only West-East but also East-West transfers existed, the central research question of this project sets out to be whether the policy of détente regarding the exchange of ideas had a long-term effect on the erosion of the Cold War, especially on the post-Cold War period. If so, the research project aims to investigate how these reciprocal interactions affected specific issues on both sides of the Iron Curtain, as well as individual economic and political projects within the beginnings of globalisation.

Sources and Methodology
International public and private archives as well as oral history interviews with a selection of relevant experts from IIASA and IWM serve as source material for analysis. As relevant experts are all those defined who become involved in political and/or economic decision-making processes as well as in shaping public debates after the transformation.

In order to organise and analyse these individual biographical research results, a historical network analysis approach is used. Therefore, the project should examine interactions between the experts as well as the strength and direction of these ties.

Detailed project description...