A Brown University team of scholars participated in the conference in Havana on the fortieth anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The conference, organized by the National Security Archive at George Washington University from Friday, October 11-13, brought together major decision makers from the Crisis to discuss new evidence and lessons learned from the events that brought the world the closest to all-out nuclear war. James G. Blight, professor of international relations (research), led the team from Brown’s Watson Institute for International Studies. Professor Blight, who has collaborated on several previous initiatives with the National Security Archive, is the pioneer of the critical oral history method, which was used throughout the three-day meeting.

A series of forums from October 23-26, 2002 reflects on the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis by the Watson Institute team who participated in the October 11–13, 2002 Conference in Havana.