[Rethinking the Cold War? New Studies on the Cold War].

Area of Science:

• History
• International Relations
• Cultural Studies

Context:

• The Cold War is often viewed through a simplistic binary lens.
• Recent scholarship utilizes global, transnational, and cultural-historical approaches.
• Contemporaries integrated concepts like interdependence, globalization, and decolonization into Cold War narratives.

Purpose:

• To deconstruct the traditional binary interpretation of the Cold War.
• To explore how diverse interpretive frames were utilized during the Cold War era.
• To highlight existing gaps in historical research.

Summary:

• Studies reveal that interpretations of interdependence, system convergence, globalization, and decolonization were already combined with Cold War narratives by contemporaries.
• This enriches the understanding of Western foreign policy and domestic positions concerning the Soviet Union.
• A significant gap exists in economic and media history studies that examine both sides of the Iron Curtain.

Impact:

• Enriches the understanding of Cold War historical context and international relations.
• Provides a more nuanced perspective beyond the East-West binary.
• Identifies critical areas for future research in economic and media history.
• Contributes to a deeper comprehension of global interconnectedness during the Cold War.