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Cold War Crucible: The Korean Conflict and the Postwar World

Masuda Hajimu will discuss his new book, Cold War Crucible: The Korean Conflict and the Postwar World, asking, what, really, was the Cold War?

Date & Time

Thursday
Jun. 25, 2015
9:00am – 10:30am ET

Location

5th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center
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Overview

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What, really, was the Cold War? No declarations nor explosions. Hostility was in the air, but where was the battlefront? What made millions of people worldwide willingly embrace the existence of an invisible war?

Masuda Hajimu's pathbreaking Cold War Crucible is an inquiry into this peculiar nature of the Cold War. It examines not only centers of policymaking, but apparent aftereffects of Cold War politics: social suppressions across the world during the Korean War. Such purges were not merely end results of the Cold War, as Masuda shows, but forces that drove Cold War reality in attempts at restoring tranquility at home. Revealing social construction and popular participation, Cold War Crucible elucidates how a mere discourse turned into an irrefutable reality, how and why ordinary people shaped such a Cold War world, and what the Cold War really was.

Examining historical experiences of the Cold War, Masuda's book ultimately raises questions that are still relevant today: How and for whom are images of threats formed and circulated? How real are the rubrics used to understand global situations? In short, what is reality?

Join the Wilson Center as Masuda Hajimu (National University of Singapore) discusses these questions and introduces Cold War Crucible: The Korean Conflict and the Postwar WorldAndrew Rotter (Colgate University) and Ryan Irwin (University at Albany-SUNY) will provide commentary on Masuda's presentation.

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Hosted By

Cold War International History Project

The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.  Read more

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

North Korea International Documentation Project

The North Korea International Documentation Project serves as an informational clearinghouse on North Korea for the scholarly and policymaking communities, disseminating documents on the DPRK from its former communist allies that provide valuable insight into the actions and nature of the North Korean state. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.  Read more

Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy

The Center for Korean History and Public Policy was established in 2015 with the generous support of the Hyundai Motor Company and the Korea Foundation to provide a coherent, long-term platform for improving historical understanding of Korea and informing the public policy debate on the Korean peninsula in the United States and beyond.  Read more

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