The Permanent International Altaistic Conference

The Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC) was founded in Munich in 1957, creating a unique informal network for academic collaboration in the field of Altaic Studies. The success of PIAC’s endeavors was closely linked to the skillful management of East-West academic relations during the Cold War, as its area of study was geographically located on the other side of the Iron Curtain, and several of the most advanced scholarly communities also worked and published in the Eastern bloc. The aim of this chapter is to review the history of PIAC within the dynamics of East-West relations and to assess its functioning as an informal academic network. The first section reviews the obstacles to East-West academic cooperation during the Cold War and analyzes the role and the perspectives of international conferences in this environment. Subsequently, a history of PIAC is presented, focusing on the attempts to unite scholars dealing with Altaic Studies into one transnational community. In the third section, we evaluate the role of PIAC as an informal academic network that fostered East-West relations during the Cold War.