Time, Space, Plus: Applied Diplomatic History with Susie Colbourn and Simon Miles

Diplomatic Immunity: Frank and candid conversations about diplomacy and foreign affairs

Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision-makers around the world. 

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Season 2, Episode 4: Kelly McFarland talks to Dr. Susie Colbourn and Dr. Simon Miles about applied history and lessons from diplomacy past. A husband and wife diplomatic historian duo from Canada, Simon and Susie are both astute observers of Cold War history. They also have an eye toward the present in their work, and the lessons citizens and policymakers can draw from history. 

Simon is an assistant professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, and the Departments of History and Slavic & Eurasian Studies at Duke University and author of Engaging the Evil Empire: Washington, Moscow, and the Beginning of the End of the Cold War. Susie is a DAAD post-doctoral fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She is co-editor with Timothy Andrews Sayle of The Nuclear North: Histories of Canada in the Atomic Age and author of the forthcoming Euromissiles: A Transatlantic History. 

In the episode, among other topics, we discussed about the overlooked history of the early Reagan administration, cycles of NATO history, and Simon's concept of "time, space, plus," which he uses to to engage his students to help them think historically. We also talked about Susie's current research and her work as editor of the "Lessons of History" section in International Journal.

Featured books and articles:

Margaret MacMillan, The Uses and Abuses of History

Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August

Alexandra Evans, "Thinking in Napoleonic Times: Historical Warnings for an Era of Great-Power Competition," War on the Rocks

Episode recorded: Friday, January 29th, 2021.