"Remarkable ways" Secondary Dimensions of International Organisations in the Cold War, the Case of the Christian Peace Conference
Abstrakt
This article deals with international organisations and their roles in the conflict between East and West. The most visible dimension of international organisations was their official conclusions, lectures, and appeals, which were often publicly published. However, these institutions also served as a space for meetings, which the participants themselves emphasised as the most crucial reason they attended these forums. The Christian Peace Conference example illustrates what these particular meetings and their consequences looked like outside the main lecture hall.
The Christian Peace Conference (CPC) was founded in 1958 in mutual cooperation between Christians and representatives of the communist authorities in Czechoslovakia. As such, it was under the supervision of the secret police, which kept tabs on the conference. Sources show that the CPC served not only as a propaganda tool for socialist states but also as a place where Christians and sympathisers of the organisation from all over the world could meet and make personal contacts. Based on these contacts, cooperation between churches or between individuals was formed. From the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren's point of view, these collaborations resulted, for example, in material transfers or in informing foreign media about the state of society in Czechoslovakia. The CPC also serves as an excellent example to confirm the thesis that participation in international conferences during the Cold War was a very exclusive affair, and only a few could attend them.