The Future of Democracy Initiative

Fateful Eights in Czech History: Historical Anniversaries of 2008 and their Significance for the Czech Republic Today

This 2-day Conference was sponsored by the Elliott School of International Affairs, the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Embassy of the Czech Republic, the Embassy of the Slovak Republic, and The National Security Archive.

October 23, 2008 – Day 1

• His Excellency Petr Kolar, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United States
• Vilem Precan, founder of the Czechoslovak Documentation Center
• Jiri Kovtun, historian and author, long-time director of the Czech and Slovak Papers in the European Department, Library of Congress
• Hugh Agnew, George Washington University, The Habsburg Legacy: Political Habits from the 19th Century Nationalist Movement
• Andrea Orzoff, University of New Mexico
• Katya Kocourek, Oxford University, In the Spirit of Brotherhood, United We Remain! (Rudolf Medek) - Czechoslovak Nationalism and Czechoslovak Legionary Traditions in the 1920s
• Laszlo Borhi, Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, The Dissolution of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the Failure of Peace in East-Central Europe
• His Excellency Petr Mares, Czech Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Lessons of Munich in American Foreign Policy
• Votech Mastny, The Parallel History Project on Cooperative Security, Munich and the Other Eights: How Much Difference Did They Make?
• Chad Bryant, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, A Break with the Past: Czech Nationalism under Nazi Occupation
• Jiri Friedl, Historical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Poland, Munich, and the destruction of Czechoslovakia: On some new findings
• Milan Hauner, University of Wisconsin, The Legacy of Czechoslovakia

October 24, 2008 – Day 2

• Hope M. Harrison, George Washington University
• Jan Kuklik, Charles University, Prague, Contexts of Benea's Munich Syndrome and Asymmetric Foreign Policy, 1943 - 1948, as Groundwork for February 1948
• Benjamin Frommer, Northwestern University, Czechoslovak Justice (and Unjustice) before, during, and after February 1948
• Slavomir Michalek, Director, Historical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Slovak Republic, February 1948 and the United Nations: How was the communist coup in Czechoslovakia discussed in the UN
• Jana Svehlova, Children of Persecuted Persecutors: The Psychological Effects on Children of Czech Jewish Communists after World War II
• Christian F. Ostermann, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
• Mark Kramer, Harvard University, The Prague Spring and the Soviet Reaction
• Vladislav Zubok, Temple University, No Spring in Moscow: Soviet Educated Elites and 1968
• Bradley Abrams, Columbia University, Buying Time: The Success and Ultimate Failure of Normalization's Tacit Social Contract
• Malcolm Byrne, The National Security Archive, The Prague Spring in Context: A Comparison of Czechoslovakia 1968 with Other Cold War Crises in Central Europe
• Michal Kopecek, Institute of Contemporary History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, The Turning Point: Political and Intellectual Reflection of 1968 in Czechoslovakia and East Central Europe
• Sharon Wolchik, George Washington University
• Thomas Blanton, Director of The National Security Archive
• Vit Smetana, Institute of Contemporary History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, The Other Life of the Eights in Czechoslovak Political Debates and Foreign Policy Negotiations
• Petr Lunak, NATO's Office of Information and Press, 1948, 1968, and the International System: Non-events, Accidents, and Watersheds?
• His Excellency Petr Kolar, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United States

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