Barbara Zanchetta

Barbara Zanchetta is Senior Lecturer in Diplomacy and Foreign Policy at the Department of War Studies of King’s College London. Previously, she was a Senior Researcher at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, working on a project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Before then, she was a Visiting Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, a Researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki, a visiting lecturer at the University of Helsinki and an Academy of Finland post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Tampere.

Dr. Zanchetta completed her studies in Italy, with degrees in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Urbino and a PhD in History of International Relations from the University of Florence.

 

Research Interests

Barbara Zanchetta’s research interests have focused on the Cold War, American foreign policy, transatlantic relations, US-Soviet détente, nuclear arms control, summit diplomacy, the American opening to China in the 1970s, US policies towards Iran, Afghanistan, Angola and the Horn of Africa and, in general, aspects related to the United States and the global Cold War.

She is currently working on a monograph tentatively titled The United States and the “Arc of Crisis:” American foreign policy, radical Islam and the end of the Cold War, which investigates the role of US policies towards key countries in the Persian Gulf region in determining the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. It also addresses the implications of such policies for the post-Cold War era and for the making of the war on terror decades later.

 

Publications (since 2010)

Books:

Bernhard Blumenau, Jussi Hanhimäki and Barbara Zanchetta (eds), New Perspectives on the End of the Cold War: Unexpected Transformations? (London: Routledge, 2018).

Barbara Zanchetta, The Transformation of American International Power in the 1970s (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014).

Jussi Hanhimäki, Benedikt Schoenborn, Barbara Zanchetta, Transatlantic Relations since 1945: An Introduction (London: Routledge, 2012).

 

Journal articles:

Barbara Zanchetta, “Between Cold War Imperatives and State-Sponsored Terrorism: The United States and Operation Condor” in Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Vol. 39, Issue 12, 2016.

Barbara Zanchetta, “Deconstructing Declinism: The 1970s and the Reassertion of American International Power” in International Politics, Issue 3, 2015.

Barbara Zanchetta, “Community of Values or Conflict of Interests? Transatlantic Relations in Perspective” introduction to the special issue “Conflict and Community: Transatlantic Relations during the Cold War,” Journal of Transatlantic Studies, March 2010.

 

Book chapters:

Barbara Zanchetta, “The United States and the ‘Loss’ of Iran: Repercussions for Transatlantic Security” in Jussi Hanhimäki, Henri-Georges Soutou, Basil Germond (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Transatlantic Security (London: Routledge, 2010).

Barbara Zanchetta,Human Rights versus Cold War: The Horn of Africa, Southwest Asia and the Emergence of the Carter Doctrine” in Max Guderzo, Bruna Bagnato (eds), The Globalization of the Cold War. Diplomacy and Local Confrontation, 1975-1985 (London: Routledge, 2010).

 

Policy papers:

Barbara Zanchetta, “The Relevance of the Cold War for Contemporary Politics,” GCSP Strategic Security Analysis, May 2016.

Barbara Zanchetta, “The American Middle East Policy Lacks Vision” GCSP Policy Paper, 2012/9.

Hanna Ojanen and Barbara Zanchetta, “Turkey and the Iranian Nuclear Program: A Key to Progress in Regional Disarmament?” FIIA Briefing Paper 107 (May 2012).

Barbara Zanchetta, “Raising the Stakes: The Need for a More Ambitious American Policy towards Iran,” FIIA Working Paper 63/2010.

 

Book Reviews:

Review of Daniel Sargent’s A Superpower Transformed: The Remaking of American Foreign Relations in the 1970s (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015) for H-Diplo Roundtable Review, Volume XVII, No. 10, 2016.

Review of Valentine Lomellini’s “L’appuntamento mancato. La sinistra italiana e il dissenso nei regimi comunisti, 1968-1989” (Florence, Le Monnier, 2010) in Cold War History, Vol. 12, No.1, February 2012.

“Structure and Personality: the Paradox of Nixon’s Decision Making Process” review of Asaf Siniver’s “Nixon, Kissinger and U.S. Foreign Policy Making: The Machinery of Crisis” in Diplomatic History, September 2011.

 

More information regarding Barbara can be found here.