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Presentation Abstracts

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Gary Baines Rethinking the Contours of Cold War History in Southern Africa Following the collapse of the Portuguese Empire and the departure of its forces from Angola and Mozambique, the white minority regimes claimed to be the last bastions of “civilization” in southern Africa. Invoking the twin threats of international communism and African nationalism, South Africa and Rhodesia sought to erect a cordon sanitaire against the black liberation movements operating from across the borders of neighbouring states. Pretoria made a point of stressing that it was safeguarding vital Western interests such as the strategically important sea route around the Cape and its mineral wealth. Certain conservative commentators reckoned that the…

Participants

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Presenters (Alphabetical) Gary Baines Gary Baines is a Professor and HoD at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. He is the co-editor of Beyond the Border War: New Perspectives on Southern Africa’s Late Cold War Conflicts (Unisa Press, 2008) and author of South Africa’s ‘Border War’: Contested Narratives and Conflicting Memories (Bloomsbury, 2014). Song-Chuan Chen Song-Chuan Chen’s research expertise lies in China’s historical interactions with Britain in particular, and with the modern world in general, from the seventeenth century onwards. His first book Merchants of War and Peace: British Knowledge of China in the Making of the Opium War (Hong Kong University Press, 2016, forthcoming) rewrites the history of the war…

Schedule

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Friday, 27 May 2016 Venue: Utown Education Resource Centre Seminar Room 3 10:00am Bus departures from the hotel 10:30am Registration 10:45 am Brian Farrell (National University of Singapore): Welcoming Remarks Self-introduction and Coffee time 11:00-12:30pm Session 1: Re-conceptualizing the Cold War Masuda Hajimu (National University of Singapore): Opening Remarks: “The Cold War as Social Mechanism: Why Do We ‘Unlearn’ Cold War Narratives, and What Are Prospects and Aims? John Munro (St. Mary’s University): “The Early Cold War Conjuncture as Racial Capitalism and Settler Colonialism” Victoria Vasilenko (Belgorod National Research University): “Contemporary Russian Historiography of the Cold War: Is There Room for Reassessment?” Discussant: David Engerman (Brandies University) 12:30-2:00 pm Lunch…