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Nick Blackbourn

Nick Blackbourn

Research Content Officer, Edinburgh Napier University

I joined Edinburgh Napier University as a Research Content Officer in August 2016. I graduated from the University of Manchester with a BA History and Economics in 2007 and completed a Master’s Degree in Modern History at the University of St Andrews in 2010.

My doctoral project, also undertaken at St Andrews, examined the Committee on the Present Danger, a pressure group that opposed nuclear arms control and instead argued for increased military spending. Its activities in the late 1970s paved the way for the Reagan Administration’s military build-up.

Research projects currently underway include: the effects of threat estimation on the cold war; the US military build-up of the 1980s; preparations for nuclear conflict in the 1970s and 1980s.

I currently maintain a cold war history blog at stilloutinthecold.net and have contributed to various outlets including the BBC World Service and Gizmodo.

How the world reached the brink of nuclear war not once but twice in 1983

Nov 18, 2016 22:00 pm UTC| Insights & Views

In the autumn of 1983, at the height of Cold War tensions, the world was only saved from nuclear disaster by the gut feelings of two soldiers during different incidents. In the first incident, on September 26, a Soviet...

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