Cuban Missile Crisis at 60: Lessons of the Past and Relevance for the Present
The Belfer Center's Project on Managing the Atom, the Applied History Project and the Intelligence Project-alongside the entire Belfer Center community-invite everyone to attend a full-day conference (either in-person or virtually via Zoom Webinar for anyone interested) discussing the implications of the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 continues to stand as the single most dangerous event of the nuclear age, when the world came closer than ever before or since to the prospect of nuclear annihilation. Scholars and analysts continue to revisit the CMC to learn its lessons in order to avoid nuclear dangers in the future. A number of recent accounts have shed new light on the various aspects of and incidents within the CMC, providing us with a better understanding of the dynamics of the crisis. As the world marks 60 years since those fateful events, the risk of nuclear conflagration is once again on the rise. Russia, a major nuclear power, is waging a war against Ukraine, a state supported by the United States and NATO, a nuclear-armed alliance. What were the most dangerous moments of the CMC? What contributed to and what ameliorated the risks of a nuclear conflagration? What can we learn from the CMC that is pertinent for preventing a conventional war in Ukraine from crossing the nuclear threshold? MTA brings together historians and political scientists to discuss the state of the art of history and politics of the Cuban Missile Crisis and gauge its relevance for the war in Ukraine and for future crises and conflicts.
This is a hybrid event. Members of the Harvard community and the public are welcome to register for in-person attendance at the Thompson Room in the Barker Center; coffee and lunch will be provided. Everyone is also invited to attend virtually via Zoom webinar.
While this virtual event is on the record, the event organizers prohibit any attendees, including journalists, from audio/visual recording or distributing parts or all of the event program without prior written authorization.