The Role of Solidarity in the End of the Cold War in Europe: A Roundtable Discussion with Lech Walesa and GW Cold War Historians

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The Role of Solidarity in the End of the Cold War in Europe: A Roundtable Discussion with Lech Wałęsa and GW Cold War Historians (Washington D.C.) LocationElliott School of International Affairs 1957 E St NW‚ 7th Floor Washington‚ DC 20052

Timeline5:00 - 5:30pm Registration 5:30 - 6:30pm Roundtable 6:30 - 7:30pm ReceptionEvent DescriptionThe GW community is invited to join us for a discussion with Nobel Peace Laureate and former President of Poland Lech Wałęsa‚ along with GW Cold War historians Hope M. Harrison and James G. Hershberg‚ as they discuss the role of Solidarity in the end of the Cold War in Europe.

This event caps President Wałęsa’s visit to GW and the Elliott School‚ and is sponsored by the GW Cold War Group and the Institute for European‚ Russian and Eurasian Studies.

SpeakersLech Wałęsa is a former President of Poland‚ the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize laureate‚ and one of the most influential leaders in Eastern Europe’s democratic transition. Rising from his work as an electrician at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk‚ he led the 1980 strike that resulted in the creation of Solidarity‚ the first independent trade union in the Communist bloc. Despite years of surveillance‚ imprisonment‚ and political repression‚ Wałęsa remained committed to nonviolent resistance and democratic reform. His leadership helped unify workers and citizens in the fight for greater political freedoms and human rights. As Solidarity grew into a powerful social and political movement‚ it played a critical role in Poland’s democratic transformation and inspired similar movements across Eastern Europe. Wałęsa’s efforts ultimately contributed to the decline of communist rule in the region and culminated in his election as President of Poland in 1990. Hope M. Harrison is Professor of History and International Affairs at George Washington University‚ where she teaches on the Cold War‚ Germany‚ Russia‚ and the interactions between history and politics. She is the author of Driving the Soviets up the Wall: Soviet-East German Relations‚ 1953-1961 (Princeton University Press‚ 2004); After the Berlin Wall: Memory and the Making of the New Germany‚ 1989 to the Present (Cambridge University Press‚ 2019); and The Berlin Wall: A World Divided (Audible/Great Courses‚ 2021). She is the recipient of the Federal Republic of Germany’s Cross of the Order of Merit.

James G. Hershberg is Professor of History and International Affairs at George Washington University‚ where he teaches on the histories of the cold war‚ the nuclear arms race‚ and U.S. foreign policy. He is the author of James B. Conant: Harvard to Hiroshima and the Making of the Nuclear Age (Alfred A. Knopf‚ 1993); Marigold: The Lost Chance for Peace in Vietnam (Wilson Center Press/Stanford University Press‚ 2012); and a forthcoming study of Brazil‚ Cuba‚ and the Cold War and Revolution in Latin America. He formerly directed the Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and edited the CWIHP Bulletin.