Authors

Discussion

The roundtable will discuss the recently published monograph entitled “Cold War Brokers: Hungarian-American Cultural Exchanges and Transnational Mobility, 1956-1989” (Bloomsbury) by Szabolcs László. The book examines Cold War encounters between Hungary and the US during the 1960s-80s, exploring how academic and cultural mid-level mediators brokered official and informal ties between these separate geopolitical 'worlds' and identifying how their interactions shaped the cultural and scholarly environment of both countries. In the book, László follows the transnational adventures of writers, academics and teachers as they crossed the Iron Curtain literally and figuratively, analyzing the ways in which they facilitated the circulation of knowledge between the global centre and periphery. He argues that the emerging trans-systemic collaborations could not merely undermine ideological dichotomies, but rewrite the history of the Cold War period and the power imbalances between superpowers and small states. Importantly, László demonstrates how non-state actors leveraged the opportunities presented by the Cold War to advance their professional development and network building, thereby achieving agency in Cold War encounters.