James G. Hershberg

James Hershberg explores the international history of the Cold War, with special attention to the impact of newly available sources from the former communist world as well as from U.S. and other Western archives. This research builds on his ongoing work with the Woodrow Wilson Center's Cold War International History Project (CWIHP), the National Security Archive at GWU, and his own research in U.S., British, Russian, Polish, Canadian, Brazilian, Italian and other archives. His newest book uses such sources to probe secret diplomacy during the Vietnam War. His first book examined the life of James B. Conant, the former Harvard president, atomic bomb project administrator, diplomat, and educational commentator. Current and recent projects include a book on the Cuban Missile Crisis, and scholarly and popular articles on various aspects of Cold War, nuclear, and U.S. foreign policy history (the atomic bomb, German question, Iran-contra affair, Sino-Indian war, et al.). Former CWIHP director, he now edits the CWIHP book series co-published by the Stanford University and Wilson Center Presses. Professor Hershberg also co-founded the GWCW, a Cold War studies group at GW for both faculty and students. He has also promoted archival openings and openness in locales ranging from Iran to Albania to Mongolia to Moldova.