A reflection upon the Lecture ‘An irrelevant relationship? The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and Yugoslavia, c.1960–91’

On the 22nd of October, Matthew Broad held a discussion about the unique position which Yugoslavia occupied during the Cold War.  This was the first of a series of digital lectures by the Cold War Research Network, with new events to follow in the upcoming weeks.

The event was a great succes and we were very pleased with a very diverse audience of both lecturers and students. The discussion, following the excellent presentation by Matthew Broad, made for an interesting exchange of ideas relating to how the EEC had an impact upon Yugoslavia during the second half of the 20th century.

Please find a short description of the event below.

Scholars have been curiously reluctant to engage with how Western Europe handled its relations with Belgrade during this time. Even if recent scholarship has sought to tackle this lacuna by highlighting the more activist stance of the European Economic Community (EEC), it nevertheless tends to discount the role played by non-EEC countries. In focusing on the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) – a looser, intergovernmental economic organisation formed in 1960 as the primary alternative to the EEC – this paper asserts that this judgement requires moderation.

Matthew Broad is a Lecturer in International Relations at Leiden and a Research Associate in the Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford. He’s held various posts at the universities of Pittsburgh, Turku and Reading, including as an EU-funded Marie Curie Fellow.

For more information about the lecture, please click here!