On Thursday 24 September 2015, The Musée national d'histoire et d'art Luxembourg will be holding a conference entitled 'Luxembourg during the Cold War: The Positioning of a Small Country on the Chessboard of World Politics'.
The conference will feature Régis Moes, a historian specialising in the Grand Duchy, and will examine the nuanced stance of Luxembourg during the Cold War.
In the context of the Cold War, Luxembourg was firmly anchored in the western block, what was considered a natural positioning in the eyes of the 1950s political class due to the country's geographical location and its pursuit of a foreign policy based on international alliances.
However, Luxembourg foreign policy had a flexibility and the country, at times, showed originality in its position. Beyond international relations, the existence of the 'iron curtain' also affected the mentality of the Grand Duchy.
"This is an exciting story of a time which reveals much about the functioning of our current society," commented Régis Moes, the speaker of the evening.
The conference will be held as an introduction to a large temporary exhibition dedicated to Luxembourg's relationship to the Cold War which has been scheduled by the MNHA for spring 2016. With this in mind, the MNHA has called on the public for any objects, documents, photographs, films, stories and information on the relationship between Luxembourg and the Eastern bloc or the United States and the Western bloc between 1945 and 1990 to contact regis.moes@mnha.etat.lu
The conference will begin at 18:00 on Floor 5 of the MNHA. Entrance is free.
Photo by MNHA
