Reform and Renewal in Transatlantic Relations, Dublin, June 7, 2008
The University College Dublin Transatlantic Relations Seminar will host a one-day conference in conjunction with the Clinton Institute for American Studies.
'Reform and Renewal: Transatlantic Relations during the 1960s and 1970s'
Transatlantic relations underwent significant change during the 1960s and 1970s, particularly with regard to the United States and the countries of Western Europe. Post-1945 co-operation, dependence and direction increasingly gave way to resentment, economic competition and division over military and foreign policies. A weakened United States economy, coupled with a focus on détente, led the Nixon administration to adopt policies that
directly challenged European economic and security concerns. Yet, this was also the time when transatlantic relations experienced rejuvenation. Domestic political dynamics influenced this evolving US-European order, as shifts in the power balances between liberals and conservatives altered the political landscape. The rise of conservatism in the United States, no less than the debacle in Vietnam, augured new foreign policy priorities for American leaders.
Coinciding with the renewed focus on economic liberalism on both sides of the Atlantic, the influence of conservatives in redefining international relations became increasingly prominent.
This conference aims to explore the political changes which helped redefine the transatlantic relationship as the Sixties era came to an end and a new age of conservatism came to prominence.
Plenary speakers:
Professor Robert K. Brigham
Professor Brigham is the Shirley Ecker Boskey Professor of History and International Relations at Vassar College, New York. During 2007-2008, he is the Mary Ball Washington Visiting Professor at the School of History and Archives, UCD. He is the author of numerous books and essays on American foreign relations, including Guerrilla Diplomacy: The NLF's Foreign Relations and the Vietnam War (Cornell, 1998), Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy (PublicAffairs, 1999) written with Robert S. McNamara and James G. Blight, ARVN: Life and Death in the South Vietnamese Army (Kansas, 2006) and Is Iraq Another Vietnam? (PublicAffairs, 2006).
Dr Dominic Sandbrook
Dr Sandbrook is the author of Never Had It So Good: A History of Britain from Suez to the Beatles (Little Brown, 2005), White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties (Little Brown, 2006) and Eugene McCarthy and the Rise and Fall of Postwar American Liberalism (Knopf, 2004). He has been an associate fellow at the Rothermere American Institute, Oxford University and is currently working on a book on the United States during the 1970s.
Additional plenary speakers to be confirmed
Twenty minute paper proposals are invited on any aspect of transatlantic relations during the 1960s and 1970s and on any aspect of political change in relevant countries.
This one-day conference will take place on Saturday, 7th June 2008, at the William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium, University College Dublin.
Please send paper title, 300-word abstract and a short cv to:
Dr Sandra Scanlon:
School of History and Archives, University College Dublin, Newman Building, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
or Sandra.Scanlon@ucd.ie
Deadline for submission of abstracts: Friday, 21st March 2008
Cosmo Macfarlane
