#NoWALLEUROPE: Debating Europe on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall
The first event of NoWALL project took place on the 11th and 12th November in Lisbon, at ISCTE-IUL.
The conference “From Helsinki to Berlin: Europe and the End of the Cold War” gathered researchers, professors and students from at least 17 different countries to debate the last years of the Cold War. On the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, this was an opportunity to remember and debate the role of European actors, namely the EEC, NGOs and networks of activists from both sides of the “Iron Curtain” in promoting fundamental human rights during and after the Helsinki Conference, and look at the national, European and international implications of the final years of the Cold War.
Antonio Varsori (University of Padua), Patricia Daehnhardt (IPRI-Nova University) and Stefan Nygard (University of Helsinki) reflected about the links between national, European and international history on the last years of the Cold War, and Alexandra Dias (IPRI-Nova University) and Bernd Rother (Willy Brandt Foundation) discussed the end of the war in Latin America and Africa. Svetlana Savranskaya (National Security Archive, USA), Volodymyr Dubovyk (Odesa National University) and David Ferreira (CEI-IUL) debated the role of the superpowers during that period and their relations with European actors in both sides of the Iron Curtain. Luis Nuno Rodrigues (CEI-IUL), Alice Cunha (IPRI – Nova University) and Ana Mónica Fonseca (CEI-IUL) discussed Portugal and the end of the Cold War. On the final panel, we looked at the transformations in Europe’s role as a global actor after the 1989 and future challenges.
The #NoWallEurope conference was also an opportunity to open the debate to a wider Portuguese audience as CEI’s director Luís Nuno Rodrigues and panelists Svetlana Savranskaya (National Security Archive), Volodymyr Dubovyk (Odesa National University) shared their perspectives with Portuguese news media.
Read their interviews here:
Interview of Volodymyr Dubovyk to Expresso: “Não há uma nova Guerra Fria mas uma guerra ucraniano-soviética”
Interview of Svetlana Savranskaya to Diário de Notícias: “EUA são maiores que Trump e a Rússia que Putin. Eles vão acabar por desaparecer”
Interview of Luís Nuno Rodrigues to Diário de Notícias: “China é agora o país que reúne melhores condições para desafiar os EUA”
This conference is part of the project “NOWALL – From Helsinki to Berlin: Europe and the Fall of the Berlin Wall” (609439-CITIZ-1-2019-1-PT-CITIZ-REMEM) funded by European Commission (Programme Europe for Citizens – Strand European Remembrance).
Fotografias por Flickr ISCTE (Hugo Cruz) / Todos os direitos reservados
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