Review of the Research Institute for History and - Universiteit Utrecht

A 4. Academic Reputation
In the period under review the group has succeeded to improve integration in national and international
networks considerably. One third of the recorded conference papers and lectures of this group were presented
abroad. In 1999 Hellema organized a conference on Dutch-British relations in the 19 th and 20 th centuries
together with N. Ashton from the London School of Economics, while Righart organized another Anglo-
Dutch conference in 1998 on Postwar Britain. The papers of the international conference The Impact of the
Vietnam War in Western Europe, organized by Hellema in 2000 will be published by Amsterdam University
Press. De Haan initiated an international conference in 2004, under the title “Juste milieu: the search for a
middle ground between liberty and order”, with participants from 5 different countries.
NWO funded several research projects, for instance on Dutch Immigration Policy (C. Berghuis), the
Dutch Peace Movement (De Graaf), and the Police in the Dutch East-Indies (dr. Marieke Bloembergen). The
NIOD (National Institute for War Documentation, Amsterdam) commissioned research on the Backpay issue
of the Dutch-Indies.
Several members of the group held temporary teaching and research positions in foreign universities.
De Graaff was guest lecturer at UCLA in 2004. Prof. Marjan Schwegman has been appointed director of the
Dutch Institute in Rome in 2002. The international visibility of the group is also increasing, due to a rapidly
rising percentage of publications in English.
A 5. External validation
Members of this group have been actively engaged in public debates. Righart contributed a column to the
weekly Groene Amsterdammer, De Haan reviews books for NRC-Handelsblad, and dr Beatrijs de Graaf, dr Bob
de Graaff and particularly drs Arend-Jan Boekestijn are regular commentators both in the national press and
on national television. De Graaff was senior researcher in the Srebrenica-project of the NIOD (National
Institute for War Documentation, Amsterdam). His involvement with the Srebrenica-project has attracted
widespread attention; the project toppled the Dutch government!
Several projects of the group were fi nancially supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs (the
book publications on development cooperation and on Anglo-Dutch relations and the conference on Polish
Dutch relationship).
A 6. Internal evaluation, analysis, perspectives and expectations for the research programme
1. Strength
The History of International Relations progamme has a leading position in the Netherlands. The Utrecht
political historians have been able to connect to other researchers in their fi eld, through a strategic alliance
with the Law Faculty in a programme that concentrates on the history of human rights. Together with a close
connection with he Center of Confl ict Studies this gives the programme a strong interdisciplinary impulse.
2. Weakness
The international profi le of the group is still relatively modest. In the next period further improvement will
be pursued.
3. Opportunities
The new collaboration between the researchers of the chairs of Political History and History of International
Relations promises to give the group a stronger profi le. The subject matter of this group commands great
interest from the general audience.
4. Threats
The group threatens to become overstretched by teaching commitments. For the coming period, efforts
will be made to improve the balance between teaching and research. A solution for this lies only to a small
degree within the reach of OGC, which will continue to be in close consultation with the Faculty about this
problem.
OGC International and Political History
270