Richard Davy has recently published Defrosting the Cold War and beyond: an Introduction to the Helsinki Process, 1954 – 2022 (Routledge, 2023). He will be joined on the platform by Dr Kai Hebel (Assistant Professor, Leiden University, The Netherlands) who is completing his own book on the UK and the Helsinki Process; and Professor Juhana Aunesluoma (University of Helsinki, Finland, and Visiting Scholar at St Antony’s College).

The discussion will be chaired by Professor Anne Deighton (Wolfson College)

The Helsinki Process, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) is both rather mysterious and very significant. It relates directly to the ending of the Cold War, but also to the use of genuinely multilateral east-west, high-level negotiation over truly important issues during the Cold War in Europe. After the Cold War it was transformed into the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and is still at work promoting democracy and human rights. Its future looks uncertain, given the current tragic war in the eastern part of Europe. Yet its form and its lessons remain very significant today, not least as a form of diplomacy without war.