Call for Papers: "…a true Chameleon". Transformations, Persistences and Emergences of Military Force and Violence

Name: Call for Papers: "…a true Chameleon". Transformations, Persistences and Emergences of Military Force and Violence
Start: 2023-09-11T22:00:00+0000
End: 2023-09-13T22:00:00+0000
Location: Dresden

Dresden

12. September 2023 bis 14. September 2023

The renowned International Conference on Military History (ITMG) is one of the most important military history conferences and is taking place for the 62nd time this year. The organizer of the ITMG is the Bundeswehr Center for Military History and Social Sciences. The ITMG serves the academic exchange and is located at the interface between the armed forces, the public and academia. From September 12 to 14, 2023, the conference will take place in Dresden. Venues are mightyTwice hotel and the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr. This year's theme is „… a ‘true chameleon. Transformations, Persistence and Emergence of military violence“. German version.

Bildliches Diagramm der Tonaufzeichnung vom Ende des Krieges am 11. November 1918 11Uhr — Photograph of the record by sound ranging of artillery activity on the American front near the River Moselle for one minute before and one minute after the Armistice at 11am on 11th November 1918.
Imperial War Museum Q 47886

A recording tape of a U.S. Army artillery sound ranging system provides the visual teaser for the 62nd International Conference on Military History (ITMG). The six-second excerpt documents single shots fire, followed by two seconds of highly intense shelling, suddenly: silence! The recording stretches from shortly before to shortly after 11 a.m. Allied time on November 11, 1918. The graphs on the tape mark the end of hostilities – the beginning of the armistice agreed upon the night before. The paper strip thus impressively visualizes the moment when the First World War came to an end.

War – a chameleon?

The Great War was over, but violence did not end. Not only in Europe, but all over the world, military force and violence changed, persisted or took new forms. The Prussian general, philosopher of war and supplier of quotations Carl von Clausewitz uses an interesting analogy for this mutability of war and the shifts in the form of military use of force, but also their permanence: war resembles a „true chameleon“.

Change, continuity and emergence

This illustration of violence chosen by Clausewitz refers to current research trends. Increasingly, research on violence and the use of military force is drawing attention to the complex temporality and processes of violence and the use of force. The 62nd ITMG therefore explores these temporalities of military violence along the temporal figures of transformation, persistence and emergence. In this way, the Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the German Armed Forces offers an interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of current research.

Topics and questions

The design of the ITMG aims at historically working approaches, but is interdisciplinary. All sciences involved in research on violence are therefore cordially invited to participate. The concept is also intended to span epochs, extends to the immediate present and is open to analysis for all regions of the world:

warfare, operations, combat
times
Knowledge, experience, memory, mediumship
Environment, spaces, geographies
Organization, institution, actors
body, mind
gender
materiality, technology

How to contribute

For a contribution please note:

Proposals for a talk should not exceed 500 words.
Your name, institutional connection and contact address (email) should be noted on the proposal.
Please also attach a short academic CV (max. 1 page).
If you would like to organize a full panel (max. 3 lectures, total scope 2 hours), we ask for a short outline of the panel and the ideas of the day before for all contributors under the above-mentioned specifications.
We are also planning a „Knowledge/World Café“ (information e.g. https://theworldcafe.com/tools-store/hosting-tool-kit/). If you are interested, please contact us with a suggestion for the conference topic and also implement your idea under the above-mentioned guidelines. You are welcome to apply as a team consisting of two hosts.