In this talk, Professor Mary Sarotte (University of Southern California) vividly recounts the dramatic events of 1989. Drawing on newly released documents from Washington, Moscow, Warsaw, East Berlin, Bonn, and London, Professor Sarotte shows how U.S., Soviet, British, French, West German, and East German leaders competed to advance their visions for post-Cold War Europe.  The decisions they made had far-reaching  consequences and helped to shape the era we inhabit today.

Mary Elise Sarotte is associate professor at the University of Southern California in the School of International Relations.  She specializes in international relations in the 20th century.  She is the author of Dealing with the Devil: East Germany, Detente, and Ostpolitik (University of North Carolina Press, 2001) and German Military Reform and European Security (Oxford University Press, 2001).  Professor Sarotte is currently working on a monograph on the history of the late Cold War.