CfP: War and Military-Political Alliances in the Modern and Contemporary History of Central Europe: Strengths, Limits, Challenges
Military History Institute Prague, Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Czech Committee of the International Commission of Military History
call for paper proposals for the international conference War and Military-Political Alliances in the Modern and Contemporary History of Central Europe: Strengths, Limits, Challenges. The conference will be held on March 19–21, 2025 at the Military History Institute Prague (U Památníku 2, Prague 3).
Over the course of human existence, alliances have become an absolutely common way of forming and maintaining relationships between individuals, groups of people and states. This mode of human interaction comes to the fore most clearly in times of war and in the context of dealing with security issues in so-called peacetime. Alliances take on a variety of forms and commitments, from political to military, economic, technological, to ‘soft power’ ties such as cultural transfers or propaganda (for example, building the ‘image of the other’). Throughout history, alliances have often changed dynamically, as have their content and meaning.
It is precisely these constants, as well as the changing specifics and contents of alliances, that the conference will focus on. Some important historical anniversaries in 2025 (the end of the Second World War, the signing of the Helsinki Accords of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, the fall of Sevastopol during the Crimean War, the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the results of the Congress of Vienna) as well as current developments in the global international community, provide an opportunity for such reflection. We will seek to critically evaluate the positive and negative aspects of the alliance relations with an emphasis on the space of modern and contemporary Europe.
We welcome interdisciplinary contributions at the intersection of history, political science and international relations, security studies, applied economics, sociology, ethnology and social and cultural anthropology, reflecting the development of alliances in theory and practice.
Subtopics:
- motivations for the formation of alliance structures, their emergence, weakening and disintegration – historical examples and comparisons
- wartime everyday life, stereotypes and routines of military aspects of alliances in actor-oriented perspective
- economic aspects of alliances
- technical, technological and knowledge transfers
- social, cultural and linguistic dimensions of peacetime alliances (training, education, schooling, sports and cultural relations); ‘soft power’ and cultural diplomacy
- interactions with local populations, spatial and urban issues (e. g. garrison towns)
- propaganda and the creation of the image of an ally in media, film, and art
- politics of memory and instrumentalization of history; historical reenactment
- historiography of the history of alliance relations, international relations forecasting, and the future of military-political alliances
Information for participants:
- presentations should not exceed 20 minutes and can be offered in English, Czech or Slovak
- there is no registration fee
- submission of the abstracts (180–250 words) shall be sent to mucke@usd.cas.cz by September 1, 2024; the abstract must include the title and a brief summary of the lecture, the names of the authors, a brief biography and institutional affiliation; submission form is available HERE
- final notification of abstract acceptance will be sent out by September 15, 2024
- selected conference papers will have the opportunity to be considered for publication in the peer reviewed, open access and Scopus indexed journals Historie a vojenství/History and Warfare and Soudobé dějiny/Czech Journal of Contemporary History; additional information regarding submissions will be provided later
Important Dates:
- June 1, 2024: publication of the Call for Papers
- September 1, 2024: deadline for submitting abstracts
- September 15, 2024: notification of abstract acceptance
- October 1, 2024: conference program available
- December 1, 2024: book of abstracts available
- March 19–21, 2025: conference days
- May 31, 2025: submission of selected conference papers for peer review
Organizers:
Pavel Mücke (Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
Prokop Tomek (Military History Institute Prague)
Jiří Rajlich (Military History Institute Prague)
Aleš Knížek (Military History Institute Prague)
Michal Cáp (Military History Institute Prague)
David Pazdera (History and Warfare Editorial Office, Military History Institute Prague)
Hana Bortlová-Vondráková (Czech Journal of Contemporary History Editorial Office, Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
Contact information:
Pavel Mücke, mucke@usd.cas.cz
Call for papers in PDF.