Call for Papers

The politics of ethnic violence attained new dimensions during the First World War. Not only were crimes committed by foreign armies against the "enemy" population, but violence by organs of the state against sections of their own inhabitants also reached unprecedented dimensions and bequeathed to the post-war period the ideal of a purportedly homogenous nationalistic people. During the Balkan wars of 1912-13 it had already come to unilaterally forced as well as negotiated population shifts.

It is well known that First World War represented also a great laboratory, for psychology and psychiatry in particular. The topic of "war neurosis", the psychological trauma suffered by soldiers deployed at front-line, has already attracted considerable attention and has been explored in historiography. Still, in the occasion of the centenary of the conflict (2014-2018), it seems important to pay further attention to this subject, which offers many important areas which have not been yet fully discussed.

When wars end the communities, veterans, and governments that waged them begin the processes of peace. From the reconstruction of national identities to the resettlement of refugees, postwar periods are often as complex as the conflicts themselves.

It is one of the most common military clichés that "generals are always preparing to fight the last war." Constituting a quip at the expense of professional soldiers who have failed to predict the future accurately, the saying is not as old as one might think. It originates from the early 20th century. Before the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, the pace of military reform had never been as rapid as to render the lessons of the previous war quite problematic. Developments in society, the state and technology present difficult challenges for modern armies to cope with.

Als "gewaltiger Transformator" veränderte der 1. Weltkrieg die europäischen Gesellschaften tiefgreifend und stellte die Weichen für eine Umgestaltung der weltpolitischen Ordnung. Viele historische Untersuchungen haben gezeigt, wie fundamental der Erste Weltkrieg für die Radikalisierung Deutschlands bis 1945 war. Bislang unbeleuchtet blieb hingegen das Spannungsverhältnis zwischen der "Grande Guerre" und dem "ersten sozialistischen Staat auf deutschem Boden". Bisher wurde die DDR vor allem als ein reines Produkt des Kalten Krieges, als "Stalins ungeliebtes Kind" (W. Loth) verstanden.

This international conference aims to examine the policies of the smaller European powers towards China - and vice versa - during the Cold War. Thereby it focuses, on the European side, on both Western and Eastern Europe - regardless of whether a country was part of the NATO or the Warsaw Pact. Meanwhile, on the Chinese side, the conference proposes to include both Chinas, namely the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (RoC).

Just decades after intense persecution and the struggle for recognition that marked the second half of the 19th century, Jewish leaders and ordinary Jews found themselves at an unprecedented social and political crossroads. The frenzied military, social, and cultural mobilisation of European societies from 1914 onwards, along with the outbreak of revolution in Russia and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East had a profound impact on Jewish communities worldwide.

Under the auspices of the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Turkey the International Commission of Military History (ICMH) will hold its annual conference in Istanbul.

From the invasion of Abyssinia to the end of World War II, Italy experienced a decade of war. This conference aims to re-evaluate the history of the Italian experience during this ten-year period with a unifying perspective that places the Italian Fascist regime and its foreign and military enterprises in an entirely internationalised framework of analysis. It will bring an international focus upon the Italian role in the break-down of the international system and appeasement, and will analyse the consequences of Italian militarism on a global scale.

1916 was a significant year in the Great War. In Europe it was the year of the Somme and Gallipoli. In Africa it was the year of Salaita and the British allied invasion into German East Africa, the loss of Cameroon to the Allies and the subsequent use of West African forces in East Africa. South African forces detoured via Egypt en route to the Somme and in Ethiopia Menelik was deposed.