Euromissiles: The Nuclear Weapons That Nearly Destroyed NATO | 2022 | Events

Euromissiles: The Nuclear Weapons That Nearly Destroyed NATO
Susan Colbourn
Susan Colbourn
Duke University
November 2, 2022
12-1:30pm

Summary

Europe was the principal battleground of the Cold War. Theater nuclear forces trained on targets across the continent, both east and west-the Euromissiles-highlighted how the peoples of Europe were dangerously placed between hammer and anvil. For those within NATO, the Euromissiles highlighted the fault lines of their alliance. Euromissiles is a history of diplomacy and alliances, social movements and strategy, nuclear weapons and nagging fears, and politics. To tell that history, Colbourn takes a long view of the strategic crisis-from the emerging dilemmas of NATO's defenses in the early 1950s through the aftermath of the INF Treaty thirty-five years later.

Bio

Susan Colbourn is the Associate Director of the Triangle Institute for Security Studies (TISS), based at the Sanford School. A diplomatic and international historian, she is interested in questions of strategy and security in the atomic age. She specializes in the history of the Cold War with a focus on NATO, the politics of European security, and the role of nuclear weapons in international politics and society.

Prior to joining TISS, she held fellowships at Yale University's International Security Studies program and at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She received her Ph.D. in History from the University of Toronto.