Critical Masses: Augmented Virtual Experiences and the Xenoplastic at Australia’s Cold War and Nuclear Heritage Sites

Critical Masses is a multidisciplinary pilot project that aims to graphically represent and mediate the histories, spaces and narratives concerning former nuclear installations within central Australia. These include the abandoned British atomic test sites at Emu Field and Maralinga, the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)/Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) rocket launchers at Woomera, and the decommissioned US National Security Agency early warning satellite base at Nurrungar. Significantly, each of these Cold War sites are situated in either hazardous, remote, secure and/or culturally sensitive areas and require sophisticated analysis and negotiation in order to best render their complexity for both online access and on-site tourism. In association with the Maralinga-Pilling Trust and traditional indigenous landowners a multi-tiered approach (re)creating these locations is being modelled across platforms for diverse audiences. Digital materials are being authored and designed for stand-alone DVD, online interactive sites and archives, an immersive/simulated space for interpretation centres, and augmented/enhanced reality interfaces via GPS and mobile/handheld devices used in situ at key sites.     

论澳大利亚参与朝鲜战争的原因

从外交演进的轨迹来看,澳大利亚参与朝鲜战争是谋求在地区乃至国际性事务中发挥积极建设性作用,并树立英联邦国家的自主外交形象。广义地分析,澳大利亚参加朝鲜战争是西方资本主义阵营对社会主义阵营采取的敌对行动。从狭义的角度来理解,澳大利亚参与朝鲜战争是为了消弥澳大利亚与美国之间的分歧,密切与美关系,其最终目的就是为建立澳美同盟创造条件。     

Command Centre Bjorn: the conflict heritage of a Swedish Cold War military installation

This text presents the results of a contemporary archaeological investigation of an important Swedish Cold War installation, Command Centre Bjorn. This centre was connected to the Air Force Attack Squadron and together with the coastal artillery and the navy it constituted a crucial part of the Swedish defence efforts during the Cold War period. The text also discusses questions concerning heritage processes, and it stresses that a contemporary archaeology approach can contribute with new insights into the Cold War and its heritage in Sweden, as well as canalize and offer guidance to the huge public interest in the material remains from this period in Sweden.     

THE ROLE OF FINNISH LEFTISTS IN SOVIET–FINNISH ARTISTIC EXCHANGES DURING THE LATE SOCIALIST PERIOD

The article examines artistic exchanges between the USSR and Finland from the viewpoint of the Finnish left. After WWII, Finland was in a difficult geopolitical position; although not occupied by the USSR, it received little support from the West and so remained an independent capitalist democracy, with little foreign leverage. The Soviet influence was felt in many areas, and throughout the Cold War, Finland received many more world-class Soviet artists than any other Western country. This was in part a consequence of Finland’s proximity to the USSR, but the Finnish Communist Party, a major domestic political force, also played a role. Immediately after the war, organizations associated with the Finnish Communist Party enjoyed a virtual monopoly over such exchanges, but this began to change in the mid-1950s. Around that time, the USSR began to allow Finnish artists to train and perform at its world-class arenas, and many of those Finnish students had links with the political left. Based on interviews and supported by archival material from Finland and Russia, the article explores the role of the Finnish left in these artistic exchanges.     

对日和约与朝鲜停战谈判

朝鲜战争的爆发迫使美国最终确定了单独媾和的对日和约新方针,并且期待战局好转而实现对日媾和;美国为了阻止中国出席旧金山会议,在对日和约签订之前采取了拖延谈判的策略;旧金山会议后美国急于停战,而因对日和约在远东陷入困境和被动局面的苏联和中国却决心在停战谈判中坚持强硬的和不妥协的立场,以便在朝鲜战场吸引和消耗美国的力量。这就是在冷战大背景下对日和约与朝鲜停战谈判之间的微妙关系。     

关于冷战问题研究的几点思考

二次世界大战改变了由欧洲人支配世界近5个世纪的国际关系格局。二战时的同盟美国和苏联,战后不久便分道扬镳。形成各自的政治军事集团。在政治、军事、经济以及思想意识形态方面进行全面对抗。欧洲成为东西方冲突的焦点．是两极格局形成的标志。由于双方大搞军备竞赛,导致“冷战”在全球范围内展开。对冷战研究,西方学术界存在着不同看法,在美国有所谓“正统派”和“修正派”的学术之争,他们在冷战问题上的分歧,主要体现在政治意识形态方面。他们的观点,为研究冷战提供不同的视野。     

The Treaty of Peace with Japan and the Korean truce negotiations

The outbreak of the Korean War caused the U.S.A. to become determined in excluding the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from the Treaty of Peace with Japan, the signing of which is hoped to be hastened by winning the Korean War. Before the signing of the treaty, the U.S.A. intentionally delayed the Korean truce negotiations in order to prevent the PRC from attending the San Francisco Peace Conference. After the signing, the U.S.A. preferred an immediate cessation of hostilities in Korea, whereas the Soviet Union and the PRC, bogged down in the Far East by the terms of the treaty, were determined to take a hard-line stance, hoping that the U.S.A. would become tied down and drained on the Korean battlefield. Thus, there was a subtle relationship between the treaty and the negotiations in the context of the Cold War. Translated by Chen Dan from Shixue Jikan 史学集刊 (Collected Papers of History Studies) 2006, (1): 66–75     

冷战与拉美游击运动的兴衰(1961-1969)

20世纪60年代,古巴革命的成功及共产主义势力在拉美地区的不断增强打破了美国主导的泛美体系的国际格局,拉美游击运动登上了冷战的历史舞台,并成为当时第三世界最强劲的地区势力,但最终在双方冷战战略的调整和竞争地位的转换中以失败谢幕.因此,这一时期拉美游击运动的兴衰是冷战对第三世界地区势力发展影响的典型案例,对它的研究具有一定的学术意义.     

John Foster Dulles,Illness, Masculinity and US Foreign Relations, 1953–1961

In the last two decades, scholars have increasingly looked to understand the way that socially constructed norms and values have influenced the course of international diplomacy. Yet while much work has been produced on areas such as gender, far less has been written on the way that perceptions of illness affected the way that leading policymakers saw themselves, their allies, and their respective roles in the world. This article, by focusing on former US secretary of state John Foster Dulles, looks at the influence that perceptions of illness had on US foreign relations during the 1950s. First, it argues that US perceptions of British and French weakness – as typified by the ill-health being suffered by those nations’ respective leaders – shaped American responses to the diplomatic crisis that erupted over the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Second, it highlights the substantial changes that took place in US policy when first President Eisenhower, and then subsequently Secretary Dulles, were stricken down by severe illness. In doing so it demonstrates how a better understanding of the relationship between illness, emotions and masculinity can help historians to better understand the course of Cold War foreign relations.     

The editor and the CIA: Herbert Tingsten and the Congress for Cultural Freedom: a symbiotic relationship

This article deals with the relations between perhaps Sweden's most influential publicist during the Cold War, the professor of political science and editor-in-chief of Sweden's largest daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter 1946–1959, Herbert Tingsten, and the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), a CIA-sponsored organisation gathering the elite of the world's non-communist leftist intellectuals, Congress for Cultural Freedom and its Swedish sub-branch called ‘Svenska kommittén för kulturens frihet’ (SKfKF). Tingsten was a professor of political science at University of Stockholm from 1935 to 1946 and then editor-in-chief of Sweden's largest daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter from 1946 to 1959. It argues that parts of Tingsten's work both as an opinion maker and as a scholar was part of a symbiotic relationship with the CCF and the SKfKF. Tingsten was the foremost propagator for the ‘end of ideology’ thesis in Sweden and the article argues that this campaign was inspired by the CCF's advancement of this idea in the 1950s and 1960s. Tingsten was personally acquainted with several CCF intellectuals and he visited several of the CCF's conferences. The article also makes the case that Tingsten helped the CCF and the SKfKF's causes and furthered their agendas in a number of ways during his time as editor-in-chief of DN. For example, Tingsten allowed the SKfKF to use DN as a platform for presenting its ideas and programmes to a broader public. The article thus shows how the CCF network of intellectuals influenced opinion making in non-aligned Sweden.     

A FLUID IRON CURTAIN

The Pasvik River shapes the greater part of the border between Russia and Norway. This body of water was a site of Norwegian–Soviet energy cooperation from the 1950s until the late 1970s. Norwegian firms constructed four hydropower stations in a strategically sensitive area. Drawing on Soviet and Norwegian archival materials, this study analysed the heterogeneous interests and negotiation processes that resulted in long-term hydropower cooperation.

The powerhouses were designed to produce both electrical and political energies for transfer across the border. These infrastructural projects fit into the contemporary narrative of peaceful coexistence and prompted a firm cooperation between the two countries. Norwegian workers built power plants on Soviet soil, thereby legitimizing the Norwegian social democrats’ policy of rapprochement. The Soviet government and media portrayed the construction as physical proof of good neighbourly relations. Not only state actors but also members of the Norwegian–Soviet Friendship Society aimed to appropriate the powerhouses for their specific goals. They worked to soften the border regime between the two countries, thus initiating a locally limited visa-free entry zone. However, this project was short-lived because Norwegian–Soviet cooperation at the border was restricted to the realm of energy production.     

The Origins of American Expansion in Hawaii and Samoa, 1865–1900

From Nixon to Reagan, official US perceptions of West German trade with the Soviet Union (Osthandel) underwent a remarkable evolution. Despite initial skepticism, the Nixon and Ford administrations placed no major obstacles to West German–Soviet economic relations. Carter, however, changed the situation. His stance on human rights and economic sanctions against the Soviets for various developments - along with his belief that West Germany should follow the United States' lead - led Carter to ask Schmidt to curtail Osthandel, an action that contributed to Schmidt's notoriously poor relationship with the US President. Despite coming from a different political party, Reagan initially continued Carter's outlook on Osthandel. Yet rather than emphasize human rights, he publicly stressed Poland's self-determination as the reason to implement his aggressive policy to curb trade with the USSR, even though his advisers feared the strategic implications of greater German dependence on Soviet energy. Carter's and Reagan's early approaches were ineffective. Their actions, especially the latter's, strained US relations with Germany, the United States' most important ally in central Europe. Equally important, both Carter's and Reagan's policies undermined détente with Moscow. Because Nixon and Ford's approach to Osthandel harmed neither US–German relations nor US–Soviet relations, these presidents' responses had conspicuous advantages over succeeding administrations.     

从"宽容"到"严格限制"的转变--战后初期英国对日经济政策(1945-1951)

战后初期,英国对日经济政策有一个变化的过程。初期,英国主张对日本应该采取宽容的政策,既要翦除日本对外侵略的威胁,又要复兴日本经济。后期,由于亚洲冷战战略的需要,美国改变对日政策,开始全面扶植日本;而日本则在美国的帮助下在东南亚寻找经济出路,这与英国的利益发生了冲突。这两方面的原因促使英国政府调整对日经济政策,强调限制日本的经济扩张以维护本国利益。