Thematic Approach

GIRES, the Global Institute for Research Education & Scholarship and the Greenwood African American Studies Center (GAASC) wish to re-examine the Cold War and explore its impact in the course of global history. 

It has been 75 years (1947) since the beginning of the Cold War, a key moment that signified the change to a new era. Despite it was evangelized to be a stable, liberal and safe new millennium it seems more unstable and problematic than ever before. 

Our conferences wishes to re-examine the Cold War and offer a multi-interdisciplinary approach. We wish to offer a prismatic view and offer insights about the key players and figures and re-connect it with the present reality. We believe that historical facts  and present reality are almost always interconnected and can offer explanations and understanding about the possible future implementations and developments. 

We hope to answer a spectrum of questions through the exploration of their multiple aspects. How the Cold War affected the geopolitics? What is the importance of diplomatic bodies and what was the role of the international organizations in the world (in)stability? What is its impact in the advancement of technology? What was the role of soft power foreign policy? How propaganda and policies shaped collective identity and memory? What are the after-Cold War policies that shaped the current global reality? What is the role of Cold-War in the formation of extremism? 

GIRES, dedicated to interdisciplinarity, invites scholars from diverse fields including but not limited to philosophy, religion, theology, sociology, anthropology, history, literature, art, economics, geography, cultural and political studies along with representatives from think-tanks and organizations to contribute to the discussion and to debate these issues.

Proposed Topics

-Foreign Policy
-Soft Power Foreign Policy
-Soviet and American Leaderships
-Extremism and Social Reality
-Vietnam War
-Afganistan War
-Oil Crises
-Cuba Missile Crisis
-Star Race: Soviet and US Space Programs
-Red Scare-Capitalistic Invasion
-Technology/Arms advancement
-Propaganda
-Media during the Cold War
-USA: Communist Party
-Diplomacy during Cold War
-Artistic Representation
-Defections and Containment
-Cold War in Films
-Film Propaganda
-Cold War in Literature
-Cold War in Arts
-Cold War and Architecture
-Education and its role in shaping identities
-Cold War: Gains and Losses
-The World After: Contemporary Lessons connected to the Cold War
-Extremism and the role of Religion
-Terrorism and Capitalism: A War of Ideology?
-Reasons for the Collapse of Iron Curtain
-Key figures: Reagan, Gorbachev
-Glasnost and Perestroika
-Far Left and Far Right
-NATO and Warsaw Pact
-September 11 Attacks: A New Cold War?
-World Domination: China, Russia, USA, EU. New Equilibrium
-Oil Wars
-Black Ops
-CIA, FBI,KGB,Stasi
-Documentation, (Un)Censored & Publicly Accessible Files
-Remembrance and Education: Teaching Cold War after 30 years

Proposed Formats (Lingua franca: English)
-Individual papers (GIRES will included it in a panel)
-Panels (up to 4 presentations-chaired by one of the presenters or appointed by GIRES)
-Roundtable presentations (chaired by one of the presenters or appointed by GIRES)
-Poster presentations
-Student presentations (one paper presented by up to 3 young scholars)
-Keynote speech (depending on the time availability)
-Pre-recorder presentation (s) (Asynchronous Platform)
-Pre-recorder presentation (s) (Synchronous-live- Sessions: live participation of presenter (s) during the Q&A sessions)

Publication Opportunity 
The Organizing Committee and GIRES Press will publish the most powerful and dynamic presentations of the conference and include them
in a collective volume in the form of short articles and/or long essays. For more information please contact us

Live Sessions & Recording
All speakers are offered up to 30 minutes to present their work. All speakers have the option to have their presentations recorded (during live sessions) in HD quality.
The recordings will be uploaded to GIRES media for unlimited access and dissemination.

Asynchronous Options
All participants have the option to have their presentations (video/audio/text) uploaded to our Virtual Platform. All  registered participants will have access to the material for 5 days.

Our proposed topics & formats are not restrictive and we invite additional germane ideas
Due to the restrictions of Corona Crisis our event (for the time being) will take place VIRTUALLY