按语：美国长岛大学助理教授夏亚峰博士最近在《冷战史研究》（哈佛大学主办）2008年冬季号上撰文《冷战国际史研究在中国：二十年回顾》，对冷战史在中国近廿来的发展状况进行了梳理介绍。其中对国内研究机构推介部分，认为华东师范大学国际冷战史研究中心是国际学术界与哈佛大学冷战史研究项目、乔治·华盛顿大学冷战研究小组和伦敦政治经济学院冷战中心齐名的、以大学为依托的四大研究中心之一。夏博士还专门撰短文介绍国际冷战史研究中心，发布在H-Net（美国人文社会科学在线）上。全文转载如下：
Center for Cold War International History Studies
East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
The study of Cold War history in the People’s Republic of China has developed significantly in the past twenty years. Researchers in China have published important works that make use of Chinese, Russian and Eastern European archival sources to study Chinese foreign policy under Mao Zedong. Two research centers have been established in China: Beijing Daxue Xiandai Shiliao Yanjiu Zhongxin (Modern History Research and Archives Center, Beijing University, Beijing) in the North, and Huadong Shifan Daxue Guoji Lengzhanshi Yanjiu Zhongxin (Center for Cold War International History Studies, East China Normal University, Shanghai) in the South.
The Shanghai center first started in January 2001 with the appointment of Chinese-American Cold War scholar Chen Jian to the prestigious position of “Zijiang scholar” (an endowed professorship). The center published Guoji lengzhanshi yanjiu tongxun (Newsletter of Cold War International History Studies), a non-periodic publication of original documents and introductory essays. This center has been greatly strengthened when the renowned scholars Shen Zhihua, Yang Kuisong and Li Danhui joined it in 2004. Guoji Lengzhanshi Yanjiu Zhongxin (Center for Cold War International History Studies) has thus become the only academic institution specializing in Cold War history studies in China. Shen Zhihua serves as current director. The center has created a website (www.coldwarchina.com) for dissimilating information and presenting research results of Chinese scholars and has also actively promoted data collection and information exchanges. Researchers affiliated with the center have already gathered copies of more than 20,000 declassified Russian documents and a large number of declassified diplomatic documents from the United States, Eastern Europe, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. The center has been adding copies of many formerly secret Chinese documents to its collection and has been publishing an academic journal, Lengzhan guojishi yanjiu (Cold War International History Studies), the only regular scholarly publication in China specializing in Cold War studies. Of the center’s many research projects, the most important is titled “Studies on Major U. S. Foreign Policy Decisions during the Cold War,” which is funded by Philosophy and Social Sciences Foundation of the Ministry of Education. The aim of the project is to compile a multivolume series on U.S. foreign policies and its impact on the Cold War. Shen Zhihua serves as the chief specialist for the project and editor-in-chief of the series. This project was launched in early 2007, and is supposed to be completed within three years. The Center for Cold War International History Studies at East China Normal University is now regarded as one of the four leading university-based Cold War studies centers. The other three are the Harvard Cold War Studies Project at Harvard University, George Washington Cold War Group, and the Cold War Studies Center of the London School of Economics and Political Sciences.
Cold War International history has acquired the status of a specialized field of study with accreditation at East China Normal University. A large number of students have been recruited for its master’s and doctoral programs in Cold War history since the fall of 2006. In July 2006, East China Normal University and Northeast Normal University jointly organized an international conference, “The Cold War International History Studies Conference and Doctoral Forum,” which attracted almost all active Chinese Cold War scholars, especially younger researchers--doctoral students and new PhDs. About 100 delegates from China, Japan and the United States attended the conference, with 41 formal paper presentations. The conference proved to be a great success, and the organizers promised to make of it a regular event.
Cited from H-Diplo Research Note, Volume 1, Number 1, Feb 14, 2008.