GoingToMeet

In the modern age, propaganda has become synonymous with warfare, the battle for hearts and minds occupying a central position within military and civilian planning. This conference intends to promote a broader, comparative approach to the themes of justifying war and the ‘just war’, drawing on social, political, military, cultural and economic studies from the Napoleonic Wars of the 19th Century through to the current war in Iraq. While the conference is mainly historical in focus, there is naturally a contemporary resonance between the experience of past efforts to justify war and more recent activities, notably in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. We would like to encourage interdisciplinarity, especially the cross-fertilization of history with the wider military and media communities. Scholars will have the opportunity to compare and contrast studies drawn from such diverse chronological, thematic and methodological positions to test the inception and development of the concept of justifying war in the modern era. This will be the first major international conference of its kind to explore these issues and will, we hope, identify further research synergies forming the basis for future collaboration.