Stephan Kieninger
Global Fellow
Expert Bio
Stephan Kieninger is a historian and an independent researcher. His forthcoming book, which he researched during a Wilson fellowship at the Woodrow 乐鱼 体育, is Securing Peace in Europe. Strobe Talbott, NATO, and Russia after the Cold War.
He holds a PhD in Modern History from Mannheim University and had previously been a postdoc at Johns Hopkins SAIS and a Senior Researcher at the Federal German Archives.
He is also the author of Dynamic Detente. The United States and Europe 1964鈥1975 (Rowman & Littlefield 2016), and The Diplomacy of Detente. Cooperative Security Policies from Helmut Schmidt to George Shultz (Routledge, 2018), and has received fellowships from the German Historical Institute, the Hoover Institution and the German Academic Exchange Service.
His research at the 乐鱼 体育 takes Strobe Talbott's NATO-Russia diplomacy as a prism for the Clinton Administration's statecraft based on a variety of oral history interviews and newly available archival sources from Strobe Talbott's diaries, his State Department papers, the Clinton Presidential Library, Great Britain and Germany.
Expertise
- Cold War
- Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding
- Energy
- History
- Security and Defense
- U.S. Politics
- Europe
- North America
- Russia and Eurasia
乐鱼 体育 Project
Strobe Talbott. Bill Clinton鈥檚 Russia Man
Project Summary
In studying Strobe Talbott鈥檚 role as President Clinton鈥檚 closest NATO and Russia adviser, my project is an effort to examine the emergence of the post-Cold War order in Europe: Why and how did NATO enlarge? Why did it go out of area to end the war in Bosnia? How did NATO manage to enlarge and to establish a partnership with Russia at the same time? How was it possible to maintain the NATO-Russia partnership during the Kosovo War and to make Russia a part of the solution? In parallel to enlargement, NATO was building a strategic relationship with Russia trying to integrate the country into the community of nations. On Clinton鈥檚 behalf, Talbott helped to steer both processes pursuing a policy of two tracks. The aim was to open up NATO, but slowly, cautiously and combined with an expanded effort to engage Russia.
Major Publications
- Securing Peace in Europe. Strobe Talbott, NATO, and Russia after the Cold War (Columbia University Press, 2025)
- Dynamic Detente. The United States and Europe, 1964-1975 (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016)
- The Diplomacy of Detente. Cooperative Security Policies from Helmut Schmidt to George Shultz (London: Routledge, 2018)
Previous Terms
Fellow, September 7, 2021 鈥 August 26, 2022
