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Forthcoming and Recent Witness Seminars
If you are interested in attending one of these seminars, please email Dr Michael Kandiah (michael.kandiah@sas.ac.uk) beforehand to ask about the availability of places.
British Bomber Command & the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
23 June 2009
Part of the CCBH Summer conference on the Cold War, organised by Dr Robin Woolven with CCBH. Chair: Professor John Simpson (University of Southampton). Participants: Squadron Leader Roger Atkinson; Marshal of Royal Air Force Sir Michael Beetham, GCB, CBE, DFC, AFC, DL; Air Commodore Norman Bonner; Squadron Leader Jock Connelly; Peter Hudson, CB; Air Vice Marshal Mike Robinson; Air Vice Marshal Bobby Robson; Wing Commander Peter West.
The Thatcher-Regan-Gorbachev inter-relationship
November 2009
Organised jointly with the Churchill Archives Centre, the Ronald Regan Library and will be held at Churchill College, Cambridge.
The reordering of the global politics just before, during, and through to the end of the Cold War was dominated by three leaders: Thatcher, Regan and Gorbachev. This witness seminar will examine the dynamics of that three-sided relationship.
UK policy towards post-communist Eastern Europe.
December 2009
This witness seminar will explore how the UK responded to the challenges posed by end of the Cold War in Eastern Europe and how it attempted to shape the political and economic structures of this region during the 1990s.
Recent witness seminars:
Britain and the Cold War in Southern Africa
23 January 2009
This witness seminar will be held on 23 January 2009 in the Old Library at the London School of Economics, 1.30-5.30pm
It will be chaired by Sir Marrack Goulding. Sir Marrack was the UK’s Ambassador to Angola, 1983–85 and was the United Nations Under Secretary General between 1986 and 1997. Participants will include senior British politicians, policymakers, diplomats and other interested persons, such as journalists.
The event will not only examine Britain’s role in the Cold War in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s, it will also offer a unique chance to examine the UK’s stance on the contentious question of political reform in South Africa, and closer examination of the UK's contribution to peaceful introduction to democracy in a key African state from political and non-governmental actors, whilst leading British actors are still alive.
The Grenada Crisis: The Cold War in the Caribbean
29 May 2009
The October 1983 US-Caribbean intervention in Grenada (a member of the Commonwealth with the Queen as Head of State) has been described as the ‘sharpest and most public dispute’ in the special relationship during the Reagan-Thatcher years. Twenty-five years on, this witness seminar will reflect and analyse the part played by the British High Commission in Barbados; how aware London were to the urgency of the developing crisis in Grenada and the US-Caribbean’s intentions; and how London reacted to the US decision to intervene?
The University of London’s External System
14 July 2008 & 19 July 2008
After the success of the first seminar on the University of London’s External System, held in June 2007, two further witness seminars were held in July 2008, both chaired by Professor Robert Holland of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies.
The first, on 14 July 2008, was part of the Pan Commonwealth Forum, which is an international conference on the developments in education in the Commonwealth and was held at the Institute of Education. This witness seminar explored the impact of the External System on the development of higher education across the Commonwealth.
The second, held on 19 July in Hong Kong, focused on the External System in Hong Kong.
Cassini-Huygens Exploration Mission to Saturn
28 March 2008
This witness seminar was organised jointly by the British Rocketry Oral History Programme and the CCBH.
The Huygens lander was part of the Cassini-Huygens exploration mission to the Saturn System, and it reached the moon Titan. A collaboration between NASA and ESA (the European Space Agency) the project illustrated the technical skill, scientific knowledge and ambition of UK Space Science teams and is probably the European Space Agencies greatest achievement in solar exploration. This witness seminar explored the UK contribution to this historic space exploration mission.
Cold War Operational Research in support of the British Army on the Rhine (1945-1991)
6 March 2008
This witness seminar was organised by Dr Matthew Godwin of the University of Lancaster, the Ministry of Defence and the CCBH.
It examined the history of British post-war military operational research (OR), which can be traced back to the development of radar technology in the 1930s, with special reference to the support of the British Army on the Rhine (BAOR). Often defined as the application of scientific method to military problems, operational research was increasingly systematised during the Second World War such that its use was widespread in the British, American and Canadian military. After the success of OR techniques during the war, the British military opted to maintain its OR units into peace-time and the Cold War.
For information on these or other CCBH oral history events, please contact the Director of the Oral History Programme, Dr Michael Kandiah, michael.kandiah@sas.ac.uk
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Witness Seminars: Forthcoming and Recent Events
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