University of Pennsylvania Press
Dreams for a Decade: International Nuclear Abolitionism and the End of the Cold War
Overview
The 1980s was a unique decade during which the radical goal of nuclear abolition enjoyed support from both grassroots movements across the globe and the leaders of the two superpowers, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. In Dreams for a Decade, Stephanie L. Freeman draws on newly declassified material to reveal the significant yet unappreciated role that nuclear abolitionism played in ending the Cold War. Together, grassroots and government nuclear abolitionists reshaped U.S. and Soviet approaches to nuclear arms control and Europe in a way that brought the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion.
Stephanie L. Freeman is a Historian in the Office of the Historian at the U.S. Department of State. She earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Virginia and previously spent four years as Assistant Professor of History at Mississippi State University. She is the author of Dreams for a Decade: International Nuclear Abolitionism and the End of the Cold War (2023). Her work has also appeared in Diplomacy & Statecraft and The Reagan Moment: America and the World in the 1980s (2021).
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.
Speaker
![Stephanie L. Freeman](/sites/default/files/styles/square/public/media/uploads/images/Stephanie%20L.%20Freeman.png)
Stephanie L. Freeman
Panelists
![Susan Colbourn](/sites/default/files/styles/square/public/media/uploads/images/Colbourn.jpg)
Susan Colbourn
![Luc-André Brunet](/sites/default/files/styles/square/public/media/images/person/brunet_photo.jpeg)
Luc-André Brunet
![Svetlana Savranskaya](/sites/default/files/styles/square/public/media/images/person/sveta.jpg)
Svetlana Savranskaya
Director of Russia Programs, National Security Archive
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
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