Call for contributions

Humanitarian and Development Aid during the Cold War

March 21-22, 2024, Bucharest, ROMANIA

Organizer:
New Europe College, Institute for Advanced Studies

UEFISCDI TE 119 19/05/2022 – PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2021-0778

The fall of the communist regimes in Europe gave the occasion for massive humanitarian actions within European borders in what seemed to be a premiere after the end of WWII. Mass media all over the world broadcasted the touching images of the Berlin wall and the violent Romanian Revolution, uncovering the world hidden behind the Iron Curtain. The western democracies rushed to save the victims of communism and to implement development projects meant to reform an underfinanced, collapsing system. The donors insisted that, albeit survivors, the beneficiaries were communist products suffering from low self-esteem. Therefore, they could not refuse/react to the humanitarian aid even if they did not agree to it. More than that, the involvement of former socialist countries in development aid for “Third-World” countries was deemed communist propaganda. The newest scholarship rewrites the history of humanitarian and development aid by addressing two of the most powerful myths: the impenetrability of the Iron Curtain and the irrelevance of the Eastern Bloc (Second World) as humanitarian actor. For the first time, research recuperates the stories of former socialist countries in the Humanitarian effort. Young-Sun Hong (Hong 2015) analyses the humanitarian commitment of East and West Germany, but she also stresses out that Soviet Union and other East European countries became active in this field since the 1950s. Kristen Ghodsee (Ghodsee 2015a, 2015b, 2019) presents the case of socialist Bulgaria and the achievements of socialist women activism. Bogdan Iacob (Iacob 2019, 2021, 2022a, 2022b) discusses the Romanian humanitarian medical assistance for the third world Countries. A second direction explores the double status donor/beneficiary of humanitarian and development aid of former socialist countries and how the fall of the communist regimes, by modifying the geographic imaginary of Global North and Global South, dramatically changed the general discourse towards the region and subsequently the role as humanitarian aid actors (Jinga 2022a, 2022b).

We argue that the former European socialist countries alongside China and USSR represented important actors of the humanitarian aid, both as beneficiaries of formal/informal aid) and donors. Not only did European socialist countries not remain isolated behind the (in)famous Iron Curtain, but, as part of their foreign policy, they deployed economic, medical and educational assistance programs to “Third-World” countries. Nonetheless, after 1990 the western humanitarians devaluated the local knowledge on the subject and assumed total ignorance.

What are the main humanitarian actions deployed by communist regimes? Are there any differences if compared to Western humanitarians? How did they addressed problems of colonialism, decolonization, racism, while preparing and conducting their actions? Last, but certainly not least, what is the dominant narrative present in the humanitarian discourse when talking about the nature of a socialist approach in all humanitarian response?

By asking such questions, this conference aims to (re)discuss the nature of the humanitarian implication of former socialist countries in the second half of the XXth century, but also what the legacy of this implication is today (if any).

Papers might address (but are not limited) observations along the following 3 lines:

Sources and methodology: Papers relating to the feasibility of conducting research on humanitarian, given the scarcity (and difficulty to access) of archival materials, and the risk, while conducting interviews to encounter stereotyped, politically correct, discourses. How to empirically measure the response of beneficiaries and the impact of humanitarian aid when local patriarchal structures and or racist /chauvinistic mainstream discourse obliterate the experience of marginal categories? What are the approaches that offer the proper tolls for this research?

Humanitarian projects towards “Third-World” countries: We look for contributions that analyze the nature, quantity and quality of the humanitarian aid deployed towards the “Third-World” countries. Second, what was the ratio between humanitarian and development aid? Third, can we talk about better long-term outcomes for the beneficiaries when the socialist/communist countries as humanitarian actors got involved? Finally, what are the new findings concerning women contribution in the humanitarian aid for the second half of the twentieth century and how can this information integrate a larger frame of analysis for gender in humanitarian aid?

West-East, North-South, East-East: What are the new findings concerning the history of the humanitarian aid in the second half of the twentieth century and how can this information integrate a larger frame of analysis of humanitarian aid? During the Cold War, the European countries, western democracies, or socialist countries, concentrated their humanitarian actions towards the South. Meanwhile, Europe kept benefitting from humanitarian aid, the communist bloc included. What are the networks that facilitated the actions in the socialist countries and how did they collaborate with the local interlocutors? Also, can we speak about an East-East humanitarian aid in order to describe the actions initiated by socialist countries for the benefit of the other states in the communist bloc?

Paper proposals may come from PhD students, researchers and humanitarian professionals, specialists in different academic disciplines, including, but not limited to, history, sociology, political science and anthropology, and economy.

Organizing Committee
Luciana JINGA – Conference coordinator
Dalia BATHORY
Daniel FILIP
Ștefan BOSOMITU

Abstract submission:
Interested participants should send abstracts of 600 words, in English or French and short CVs to mia.jinga@gmail.com and dalia.bathory@gmail.com by Friday, February 2nd, 2024.

All submitted abstracts should refer to original, previously unpublished research results.

Abstracts should include the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) e-mail address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.

The authors of accepted proposals will be informed by February 9th, 2024.

Paper submission:
Full papers should be submitted by March 1st, 2024, to be circulated among conference participants, the chairs, and the discussants.

The languages of the conference will be English.

Each speaker will have 30 minutes to present her/his paper and another 15 minutes for Q&A.

The proceedings of the conference will be published with the financial support of the Grant UEFISCDI TE 119 19/05/2022 – PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2021-0778. The final texts of approximately 30,000 characters must be submitted by June 1st 2024.

Lunches/coffee, accommodation (2 nights) and travel costs will be covered by the organizers.