One More 'Lost Peace'?

Were there any missed chances to build a more peaceful world than the present one after the Cold War? Were there any attempts at working out a more comprehensive and more cooperative way to overcome it? What was precisely at stake during the Cold War? What was really at stake for the 'losers' and what stakes did the 'winners' gain -- if there are any 'winners' at all? Those questions were raised during a seminar where some outstanding scholars were invited to discuss them plainly before an audience of young students in an ancient, yet 'peripheral' Italian university. The result may be seen as a readable concentration of basic and meaningful insights that often defy a noticeable amount of conventional wisdom on the ground of careful and authoritative scholarly research.

Raffaele D'Agata is professor of contemporary history at the University of Sassari. He has published books on international twentieth-century history, including Da Monaco a Bretton Woods: l'evoluzione transnazionale degli interessi e degli scopi (Milan: Franco Angeli, 1989) and La nemesi dei prestadenaro : economia mondiale e Guerra fredda, 1944-1948 (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2001).
Lawrence Gray is professor of political science and international relations at John Cabot University in Rome. His publications include The Italian Communist Party: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (Greenwood Press, 1980), co-edited with Simon Serfaty; Corporate Activities in the Era of Global Economy (Tokyo: Keizai University Press, 1992); and L'America di Roosevelt negli anni dell'esilio di Luigi Sturzo (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2002).

Part 1 Preface
Part 2 Introduction
Part 3 SECTION 1: WHAT WAS AT STAKE FOR THE "LOSERS"?
Chapter 4 Wilfred Loth Soviet Ambivalences, Western Overstatements
Chapter 5 Odd Arne Westad Ideas and Power: The Soviet Inner Debate in the 1970s
Chapter 6 Rodolfo Ragionieri An Actor in Search of a Theory: Explaining Gorbachev's Decision Making in 1989
Chapter 7 Panel: On Revisions and Comparisons
Part 8 SECTION II: WHAT STAKES DID THE "WINNERS" GAIN?
Chapter 9 Raffaele D'Agata Ostpolitik, Ero-Communism, and Détente: Responding to the World Crisis
Chapter 10 Lawrence Gray An Uneasy Empire: Myth, Obsession, Identity and American Policy
Chapter 11 Gian Paolo Calchi Novati The Defeat of the Third World: The Case of the Horn of Africa
Chapter 12 Panel: The Security Issue and the Chances of Western Communication
Part 13 The Contributors