Sergey Radchenko's personal web

On May 28 LSE-IDEAS published my analysis of the situation on the Korean Peninsula, which may be found here: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/IDEAS/publications/Reports/SA001NKoreaW....

On May 20 I had a book launch for Two Suns in the Heavens at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C. Mark Kramer (Harvard University) offered insightful comments.

On May 18-19 I took part in a conference organized by the Cold War International History Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center on "India and the Cold War 1947-1991: Archival Perspectives and Historical Revisions," presenting a paper about Soviet-Indian relations in the 1980s. The following is a brief from the CWIHP:

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May 19, 2009

CWIHP is pleased to announce the international conference India and the Cold War 1947-1991: Archival Perspectives and Historical Revisions held on 18-19 May 2009 at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.

On January 30, 2009 I gave a talk at the Davis Center for Russian Studies (Harvard University) on Soviet Koreans and the End of the Cold War in East Asia. I would like to thank the Slavic Center of the University of Hokkaido (David Wolff), Center for Cold War Studies (Mark Kramer) and Davis Center (Lis Tarlow) for organizing this event.

On January 5-7 & January 9-11 in Shanghai and Hong Kong I participated in conferences on Sino-Soviet relations and on Mao's foreign policy during the Cultural Revolution. In Shanghai I presented a paper on the Indochinese "obstacle" to Sino-Soviet normalization, and in Hong Kong, a paper on the Soviet perception of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. In both Shanghai and Hong Kong I participated in roundtable discussions: in Shanghai with Lorenz Luthi and Roderick MacFarquhar and in Hong Kong with Chen Jian, Frank Dikotter, Lorenz Luthi, Roderick MacFarquhar and Odd Arne Westad.

A very positive review of the book from Len Scott: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode....

A fairly cool review, which criticizes the book because it does not pay enough attention to Germany and Poland. Point well made - but, on the other hand, the book is not about Germany and Poland; it's about the A-bomb, and its impact on great power cooperation in the post-war world. Read the review here: http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20090101fabook88126/campbell-craig-sergey-....

On December 15, 2008 H-diplo published a roundtable of Lorenz Luthi's Sino-Soviet Split: Cold War in the Communist World. Read it here: http://www.h-net.org/~diplo/roundtables/PDF/Roundtable-IX-25.pdf. I wrote one of the reviews for this roundtable.

On November 21, 2008 I took part in a workshop on North Korea organized in London by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. I presented a paper on strategic implications of Korean reunification.

H-net has just published my review of Michael S. Goodman's, Spying on the Nuclear Bear: Anglo-American Intelligence and the Soviet Bomb. http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=22874. The book offers some useful insights into atomic intelligence on the part of the UK and the US. It works well as a technical history; it misses the big picture in my view.

LSE-IDEAS is to host book launch for Campbell Craig and my The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War. The book launch will take place on Tuesday, October 21, 2008, at IDEAS (Columbia House), LSE, at 6:30pm. Some books will be available for purchase.

Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Stanford University Press have published my new book, Two Suns In the Heavens: The Sino-Soviet Struggle for Supremacy, 1962-1967. The book argues that the Sino-Soviet alliance collapsed because it was intrinsically unequal - something that was recognized by both sides. But if the Soviet leaders accepted this situation as entirely natural, the Chinese were unhappy with their second-rank position in this Soviet-invented system of coordinates.

On September 8-9, 2008 I participated in an international conference, Crisis and Confrontation on the Korean Peninsula: 1968-1969. Document reader from the conference is available here.

On September 10-13, 2008 I visited the Bush Library at College Station in Texas to conduct research for a book in progress (Facing the Dragons). Even though most of the documents I needed were still classified and I spent most of my time in the library filing FOIA requests, the small amount of declassified or non-secret documents I found sufficed to make the trip a great success from the perspective of my research.

The Journal of Asian Studies has published my review of Yuki Konagaya, Sanjaasuren Bayaraa and Ichinkhorloo Lkhagvasuren (eds.), A.D. Simukov: Trudy o Mongolii i dlia Mongolii, 2 vols., (Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology, 2007). http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid....

On June 26-27, 2008 I attended a conference in Sapporo, Japan: "Northeast Asia in the Cold War: New Evidence and Perspectives", which was organized by the Slavic Research Center of Hokkaido University (David Wolff), and presented a paper titled "Secret Diplomacy of Soviet-South Korean Normalization." I would like to thank David Wolff and the Slavic Research Center for the excellent organization of this exceptionally intellectually stimulating conference.

On June 18, 2008 I made a short research trip to Leicester (reasonably close to home this time). The library of the University of Leicester has a collection of diplomatic lists from various foreign ministries dating back decades and decades. I was after the elusive "Nazarov", the supposed KGB contact of the South Koreans in Tokyo in the late 1980s-early 1990s. The idea was that if "Nazarov" was a "legitimate" KGB cadre, he would have to appear on the diplomatic list, as a member of the embassy staff. He did not appear on any lists, so the search continues. But it was a nice trip anyhow.

On May 24, 2008 I participated in a conference on "Korean Security Relationships Past and Future" in Washington D.C. The conference was organized by the National Security Archive and the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. I presented a paper on "Russia's Korea policy, 1960-2000." A publication is expected to result from this.

On May 7, 2008 the former President of the Republic of Georgia and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union Eduard Shevardnadze hosted me and Artemy Kalinovsky at his residence in Tbilisi, Georgia for an extended interview. The interview will be used in part in my book on the Soviet Union and East Asia.

The Cold War International History Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center has published Bulletin No. 16 - "Inside China's Cold War," which, among other excellent pieces, features my joint article with David Wolff on the road to the Sino-Soviet summit of 1949-50, and my introduction to a collection of documents on Mongolia's foreign affairs during the Cold War. Download directly from www.cwihp.org.

Campbell Craig and I have completed our book, The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War. The book will be released by Yale University Press in August 2008.

Reviews:

“This is a sprightly and well-argued book that should be read by a wide audience.”—Lloyd Gardner, Rutgers University

On March 21, 2008 Artemy Kalinovsky (left) and I met with Georgii Arbatov, a long-time director of Moscow-based Institute of USA and Canada Studies, for an extended interview.

On September 19, 2007 I met with former South Korean President Kim Young-sam at his house for an interview for my forthcoming book "Gorbachev looks East"...

Completed a short review of Mao: the Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. I did enjoy the book, despite its shortcomings. The book is superbly researched and exceedingly well written. As for the twisted arguments, well... it is for each reader to decide. Looks like quite a few readers did not like my comments. Wonder why?