On September 30, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) hosted a virtual conversation on captive nations and the end of the Cold War with Dr. Elizabeth Spalding, Secretary of VOC’s Board of Trustees, and Senior Fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy.
About the Speaker
Dr. Elizabeth Edwards Spalding is Senior Fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. In addition to serving as Secretary of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s (VOC) Board of Trustees, she is a core faculty member in VOC’s National Seminar for Middle and High School Educators. Spalding is the author of The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, and the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism, the co-author of A Brief History of the Cold War, and currently at work on a history of world communism. Her scholarly and popular articles and reviews have been published widely, including in Journal of Church and State, Orbis, Wilson Quarterly, Providence, The American Mind, Law & Liberty, H-Diplo, Claremont Review of Books, and Presidential Studies Quarterly. She has taught on subjects ranging from U.S. foreign policy, national security, and international relations to presidential leadership, religion, and politics at Pepperdine University, Claremont McKenna College, George Mason University, and Catholic University of America. As the longtime Director of Claremont McKenna College’s Washington, D.C. program, she also mentored over a generation of undergraduates from the Claremont Colleges in student internships, postgraduate careers, and work-life balance. A frequent lecturer on U.S. foreign policy, the presidency, and the Cold War, Spalding holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in international politics and political theory from the University of Virginia and a B.A. in political science from Hillsdale College. A third-generation anticommunist, she lives with her family in Arlington, VA.
