Austin Jersild (USA)

Research Description

This research uses the single year of 1959 to explore American-Soviet relations, Sino-Soviet relations, and East-South relations to explore the contrasting visions of development that reshaped the Cold War, anticipated the subsequent decline of the Socialist world, influenced international relations until 1989, and continue to shape contemporary global politics. China’s role is central throughout the study: as a suspicious and distant observer of emerging US-Soviet reconciliation; as a significant critic of the Soviet system and both its domestic and foreign policies; and as a source of competitive outreach to the Global South.

Bio

Austin Jersild is Professor of History at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia (USA), and an Affiliate of the Graduate Program in International Studies. He has published on the formation and expansion of the Russian Empire in the Caucasus in the 19th century, and Sino-Soviet relations in the 20th century. He is the author of The Sino-Soviet Alliance: An International History (2014), and co-editor of Socialist Internationalism in the Cold War: Exploring the Second World (2016).

Final Report

Available here.