Cornell University Press
Euromissiles: The Nuclear Weapons that Nearly Destroyed NATO
Overview
In Euromissiles, Susan Colbourn follows the rise and fall of an arms race in Cold War Europe, that over the theater-range nuclear forces or intermediate-range nuclear forces so often known simply as the Euromissiles. At the center of the story Colbourn tells is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an alliance regularly divided and in disarray over the missiles. Colbourn illustrates the diverse and far-reaching consequences of the Euromissiles, touching on everything from nuclear strategy and international politics to grassroots activism and popular culture. In so doing, Colbourn offers a reminder of just how fragile NATO remained even in the final days of the Cold War.
Susan Colbourn is Associate Director of the Program in American Grand Strategy at Duke University. A diplomatic and international historian, she received her Ph.D. in History from the University of Toronto and has held fellowships at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and Yale University’s International Security Studies program. She is the author of Euromissiles: The Nuclear Weapons That Nearly Destroyed NATO (2022) and is the editor, along with Timothy Andrews Sayle, of The Nuclear North: Histories of Canada in the Atomic Age (2020).
The Washington History Seminar is co-chaired by Eric Arnesen (George Washington University) and Christian Ostermann (Woodrow Wilson Center) and is organized jointly by the American Historical Association and the Woodrow Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. It meets weekly during the academic year. The seminar thanks its anonymous individual donors and institutional partner (the George Washington University History Department) for their continued support.
Panelists
Giordana Pulcini
Roma Tre University
Aaron Bateman
Hosted By
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
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
Nuclear Proliferation International History Project
The Nuclear Proliferation International History Project is a global network of individuals and institutions engaged in the study of international nuclear history through archival documents, oral history interviews, and other empirical sources. At the Wilson Center, it is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. Read more
Global Europe Program
The Global Europe Program is focused on Europe’s capabilities, and how it engages on critical global issues. We investigate European approaches to critical global issues. We examine Europe’s relations with Russia and Eurasia, China and the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Our initiatives include “Ukraine in Europe” – an examination of what it will take to make Ukraine’s European future a reality. But we also examine the role of NATO, the European Union and the OSCE, Europe’s energy security, transatlantic trade disputes, and challenges to democracy. The Global Europe Program’s staff, scholars-in-residence, and Global Fellows participate in seminars, policy study groups, and international conferences to provide analytical recommendations to policy makers and the media. Read more
Kennan Institute
The Kennan Institute is the premier US center for advanced research on Eurasia and the oldest and largest regional program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Kennan Institute is committed to improving American understanding of Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and the surrounding region though research and exchange. Read more
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