Monday, June 29, 2009

U.S. Educational/Cultural Exchanges with Russia/Soviet Union


Over the weekend I received a Google Alert for “international education” that I not only found to be quite interesting but also very timely in my research efforts. The short news piece that I’m referring to entitled “United States-Russian Exchanges Boost Mutual Understanding” was published by ISRIA (a consulting an information publishing service founded in Paris in 2004). The news piece is of interest to me as it relates to international education and, in particular, the public diplomacy aspect of international educational exchanges. The reason that this news piece is so timely for my research is that I just checked out several related books from the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago last Friday (the day before the ISRIA piece). The books I checked out are as follows:

U.S.-Soviet Cultural Exchanges, 1958-1986: Who Wins? by Yale Richmond (1987)

Cultural Exchange & the Cold War: Raising the Iron Curtain by Yale Richmond (2003)

Practicing Public Diplomacy: A Cold War Odyssey by Yale Richmond (2008)

Private Diplomacy with the Soviet Union edited by David D. Newsome (1987)

Cultural Relations and U.S. Foreign Policy by Charles A. Thomson & Walter H.C. Laves (1963)

Cultural Affairs and Foreign Relations edited by Robert Blum (1963)

I checked out all of these books as they focus entirely or in part on the use of educational/cultural exchange by the United States during the Cold War period and in particular with the Soviet Union. Hopefully these books will help me focus my dissertation topic/proposal…

The ISRIA piece offers a brief overview of the current state of U.S.-Russian educational/cultural exchanges which I admittedly have not been following in depth.
EDIT ~ Apparently the ISRIA link isn't working (most likely because you need to be a subscriber despite me being able to access it earlier this week). I believe that I found the same article on America.gov which you can access here.

2 comments:

  1. Hi David,

    Interesting to see how this develops. At some point you might want to consult with David C. Engerman, a history professor at Brandeis who specializes in Soviet/Russian-U.S. relations. His new book, due out in October, is "Know Your Enemy
    The Rise and Fall of America's Soviet Experts" Oxford University Press http://www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryAmerican/Since1945/?view=usa&ci=9780195324860)

    Bryan

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  2. @Bryan ~ Thanks for the comment and for pointing me in the direction of David Engerman's work. His new book sounds really interesting and I will check it out.

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