On March 15-16, 2019, the Freigeist research group “The Cold War’s Clash of Civilization” hosted an international workshop, “Cold War Islamisms.” The workshop brought together some twenty-five leading scholars of Islamism, the Cold War, and international history to discuss such themes as continuities between nineteenth century pan-Islamism and Cold War Islamist projects; the legacies of the Muslim Brotherhood for Islamist movements beyond Egypt; and the impact of events such as the Camp David Accords, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and US support for the Afghan mujahidin on the development of Islamist movements and thought during the 1980s.

A highlight of the workshop beyond six panels devoted to discrete themes such as transnational Shi’ism and Turkish Islamism, among others, was a keynote conversation between author Pankaj Mishra and Danny Postel on the former’s book Age of Anger. Bringing together both establish and emerging scholars of the Cold War and political Islam, the workshop thus established common areas of interest and priority areas for future research on topics central to the work of the Freigeist research group. The workshop is funded by the generous support of the VolkswagenStiftung, Germany’s largest private research funding foundation, and the Freie Universität Berlin.

For more information on the workshop, please consult its website.