Socialism Goes Global: Cold War Connections Between the 'Second' and 'Third Worlds'

This project addresses a fundamental aspect of 20th century globalisation that has been almost entirely ignored by scholars: the transmission, circulation and reception of values, cultures, and beliefs between what western contemporaries called the 'Second' and 'Third Worlds'. Following the Second World War, the countries of eastern Europe radically recast their global role by re-imagining their relationships with Africa, Latin America and south-east Asia. They developed new forms of global knowledge and new institutions to support a wide-ranging program of socialist 'export': theatre and film, economic and scientific expertise, humanitarian aid and political ideals-all were essential to eastern Europe's grand effort to translate 'socialist modernity' globally. The project also reshaped the 'socialist metropole', as post-colonial cultures were imported into eastern Europe through, for example, mass media, political solidarity movements, and the presence of 'Third World' students, workers and exiles.

An international team of scholars will examine this critical Second-Third World encounter across a range of east European countries, from the Soviet Union to the GDR, providing an intricate regional mapping of the different forms and geographical foci of this transmission, and their varying impacts. How was the encounter shaped by Moscow, by Eastern bloc countries' specific national histories as colonisers or colonised, or by intra-bloc competition for influence? How did the interactions enabled by this encounter shape concepts central to 20th century history, such as development, political rights, modernity, mass culture, and race? What impact did the project of 'exporting socialist modernity' globally have on the experience of living under socialism, on transnational Cold War debates, and on the fate of socialist systems more broadly?

This project has the potential to impact beyond its own temporal and geographical boundaries, not only opening out a new field, but also transforming established ones. Drawing in specialists on other world regions, this project's collaborative activities will offer new approaches to globalisation - notably around periphery-periphery interaction, and the circulation of ideas between non-western worlds. Moreover, it will transform dominant approaches to postwar socialism, the rise and fall of which has been studied largely in national or regional terms. Rather, the project examines the socialist world as a dynamic hub of global exchange. In addition, it makes a signal contribution to postwar European history, addressing the impact of decolonisation in a half of Europe previously ignored.

This project will also deliver broader insights into the transfer of knowledge and practices. First, it provides a powerful lens through which to consider the relationship between 20th century political ideologies, the transfer/ circulation of ideas, and globalisation. Second, it develops approaches for, and collaborations with, other area studies: in so doing it helps to overcome the boundaries between regional specialists that inhibit understanding the history of a globalised world. Third, its concern with the relationship between authoritarian systems and the translation of values abroad, and between cultural transmission and political instability, has clear contemporary policy relevance, as 'soft power' politics (e.g. by Russia and China in the developing world) continue to play a major role. Last, through a BFI-run film festival and a proposed BBC radio series on 'red globalisation', scheduled to co-incide with the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, we will make a significant contribution to the development of a broader public understanding of how cultures reshape themselves in the process of translating values to, and from, other parts of the globe.

The impact of this project is multi-dimensional, and will benefit different audiences.

Through our collaboration with the security studies' institution the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), we will build relationships with policy makers to enable a productive dialogue through which the policy relevance of our work on 'authoritarianism and soft power' can become part of our research agenda. The phenomenon of 'soft power' has gained increasing traction amongst policy makers over the last five years, as shown most recently by the establishment of the parliamentary 'Committee on Soft Power and the UK's Influence' (appointed May 2013), and the increases in EU funding for this area of Europe's foreign policy. From the 'Soft Power and Authoritarianism' conference, we have the option of producing a collection that brings scholars with a historical perspective into dialogue with those engaged in contemporary 'soft power' initiatives (see below under 'dissemination'). In the second half of the project, we will be in a strong position to produce policy information and talks, which may be given at RUSI, or through the FCO's academic policy briefings, or at the EU Commission's policy workshops (of which Mark has experience). The theme has clear relevance for understanding international politics today, and should be of interest to policy planners working on the appeal of cultural diplomacy more generally.

We will also lead a number of major cultural initiatives that will publicize our approach to globalisation and transregional cultural transfer to a much broader national (and potentially international) audience. Centrally, we wish to communicate an understanding of how cultures interact and reshape themselves in the process of translating values to, and from, other parts of the globe. As part of the centenary of the Russian Revolution in autumn 2017, we will organise a 'film festival' with the British Film Institute (BFI) on the subject of 'Global Socialism'. We will use a range of films from the 1920s to the 1980s, some of which will have been analysed as part of our academic research project, to explore the way in which socialist filmmakers in both the 'Second World' and other world regions represented their political and cultural projects for a world audience, sought to promote their revolutions abroad, depicted an ever growing socialist world in the post-world period, and charted disillusionment with, and resistance to, the global socialist project. We will have an impact on a broader public through educational initiatives at the BFI, a festival guide/ catalogue which will remain online after the festival's end, and events organised by the BFI to publicise this initiative in national media.

In our contemporary moment, when aspects of neo-liberal globalisation are being questioned and rethought, historicising globalisation's growth in the postwar period, for a popular audience, has much potentially to add to a broader public conversation. For this reason, we aim to write a series of programmes for BBC Radio 4 on the topic of 'Red Globalisation'. This will explore attempts both by socialist states and international organisations to create an alternative socialist form of globalisation, and their ultimate failure in the face of a neo-liberal model. It will be written in a popular format that uses appealing accounts from our research - such as the role of eastern European experts in the modernisation of Iraq or Libya; the Cold War competition between e.g. Radio Moscow and the BBC in Africa and Asia; or the role of football in taking eastern bloc culture to Latin America - in order to tell this story in a compelling and appealing manner. The BBC have expressed a strong interest in scheduling this series to co-incide with the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, and the BFI festival. It would be additionally broadcast via i-player and other media: these can potentially reach a broad international audience.