Foreword

Abstract

The period framed as the Cold War of the superpower-led blocs is a limitless treasure trove of hidden stories about people, places and processes hitherto underestimated in significance. It is often said that the study of political events ultimately leads towards a convergence of the historical and the social sciences-based approaches, the idiographic and the nomothetic. What could better exemplify this than the impact of the continuous unearthing of important but — at least in comparative terms — ignored subjects relating to Cold War history, resulting in a need to constantly revaluate the old evidence regarding established truths and narratives? The emergence of new pieces of fact and novel considerations feeds into just the kind of process-tracing analysis that is increasingly common in historical studies as well as the social sciences. (...)