International Construction of Area Studies in France during the Cold War: Insights from the École Pratique des Hautes Études Sixth Section, History of the Human Sciences, Special issue ‘Social and Human Sciences on Both Sides of the Iron Curtain’, 29(4-5), 2016, pp. 125-150
Résumé
The article investigates the institutionalisation, in France, of an area studies programme dedicated to Russia/USSR and Eastern Europe and the various international connexions as well as the scientific and financial transfers that went into its making, arguing that these processes were linked. This programme was launched within an Area Studies Division established in the mid-1950s at the Sixth Section of the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes. It benefited from the assistance of American foundations (Rockefeller and Ford) and transatlantic exchanges on one hand, the academic cooperation established with socialist countries, on the other hand. The article examines what made all these exchanges possible and argues that they had joint effects on the launching of the Sixth Section’s programme. It thus confirms the interest of making a history of area studies which is sensitive to processes that transcended national borders.
An interrogation of pertinent articulations between Russian/Soviet, Eastern European studies and the Cold War context also infuses this study. The article emphasises long-term scientific trends and previous international collaborations that shaped this programme, thus calling into question the use of the Cold War as an exclusive explanatory framework. Yet, the article also shed light on political constraints derived from the East-West confrontation that framed, partly, the institutionalisation and internationalisation of this domain of study vis-à-vis local French conditions. It also addresses the issue of political collusions underlying academic exchanges and raises the question of their role in the East-West intellectual warfare.
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