Cold War Radio

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Join us for an in-depth discussion of non-military programs begun during the Cold War, including broadcasting, academic/student exchanges, cultural/sports events, and overseas exhibits of American life. These programs were historically a fundamental part of US national security strategy.

Started under the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, these programs were supported by all subsequent administrations (except the Trump administration) because they were viewed as projecting American values overseas and building ties with people (especially in closed societies).

The US has now abandoned the global information space to China, Russia, and other hostile countries, weakening US national security.

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About the speaker

Mark G. Pomar is currently a Senior Fellow at the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas.  

From 1975 to 1982, Mark taught Russian studies at the University of Vermont. From 1982 to 1993, Mark worked as Assistant Director of the Russian Service at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Munich), Director of the USSR Division at the Voice of America, and the Executive Director of the Board for International Broadcasting, a federal agency that oversaw Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 

From 1994 to 2008, Pomar was a senior executive and President of IREX, a large US international nonprofit organization. From 2008 to 2017, Mark was the founding CEO and President of the US - Russia Foundation (USRF), a private US foundation that supported educational programs and exchanges. 

Pomar is the author of two books: Cold War Radio: The Russian Broadcasts of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (University of Nebraska Press/Potomac Books, 2022) and A.F. Koni: Liberal Jurist as Moralist(Univ of Pittsburgh Press, 1996)

Mark has a PhD in Russian Literature and History from Columbia University and a BA from Tufts University.