Conference: Peace Movements and Democratic Culture in Southern Europe during the 1970s and 1980s, 14.-16.02.2018, Rome

Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom and University of Sheffield
Time: 14.-16.02.2018
Venue: Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom
The mobilisation against the deployment of US Pershing and Cruise Missile atomic warheads in the wake of the NATO Dual Track Solution in 1979 was a watershed moment in the recent political history of Western Europe. The anti-nuclear protests of the 1980s activated civil society, renegotiated the parameters of political participation and redefined the understanding of international and domestic security. The contours and implications of the 1980s anti-nuclear protests are well researched for key western European countries. Developments in southern Europe, however, have not yet been substantially studied. The aim of this conference is to analyse anti-nuclear and anti-militarist peace protests in southern European countries during the late 1970s and 1980s. The focus will be on Greece, Spain and Italy, three countries that were involved in the 1980s mobilisation cycle in different ways. Italy had been selected for the deployment of Pershing missiles and was thus a key battleground of conflicts over the Dual Track Decision. But the country had also seen a wave of left and right-wing terrorism during the 1970s and a concomitant crisis of parliamentary democracy. Spain and Greece … read more and source (Web).