Paris, France-Associate professor of history, Dr. Jaclyn Stanke, presented a paper on the Cold War at an international conference held in June 2008 at the Sorbonne in Paris. The focus of the conference, “Overcoming the Iron Curtain: Visions of the End of the Cold War in Europe,” drew experts from across the globe.
Stanke’s presentation titled “Stalin’s Death and Anglo-American Visions of Ending the Cold War,” argued that Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953 offered the first real opportunity to either end the Cold War or at least bring about some kind of reversal in its course. She discussed three main visions that prevailed during the period immediately following Stalin’s death that support this theory, including the suggestion of some kind of détente that could be obtained between the West and the Soviet Union, reforming the Soviet system so that the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc nations could become normal states in a liberal world system opposed to being ideological foes of the West, and the complete destruction or elimination of the Soviet system and, therefore, end to the Cold War.
Dr. Jaclyn Stanke graduated summa cum laude from Washington State University with a Bachelor of Arts in foreign languages and literatures and received a Master of Arts in history from Emory University. She also went on to earn a Ph.D. in American history from Emory.
She is the recipient of the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship in Russian from the Center for Russian and East European Studies at Emory University, the Myrna Bernath Research Fellowship from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, a research travel grant from the English Speaking Union of the United States and a research travel grant from the Institute of International Education.
Bulletin: 0010
Date: 9/11/09