War, Virtual War and Human Security (4th Global Conference)

4th Global Conference
War, Virtual War and Human Security

Wednesday 2nd May - Saturday 5th May 2007
Hungary, Budapest

Call for Papers
(please cross post where appropriate)

Is war an extension of politics by other means? The locomotive of technology?
Is it humankind in its most natural state; or is human society - despite
perceptions and ongoing conflict around the world today - actually moving
toward an aversion to war and a state of peace? This inter-disciplinary and
multi-disciplinary conference seeks to provide a challenging forum for the
examination and evaluation of the nature, purpose and experience of war, and
its impacts on all aspects of communities across the world. Viewing war as a
multi-layered phenomenon, the conference series seeks to explore the
historical, legal, social, human, religious, economic, and political contexts
of conflicts, and assess the place of art, journalism, literature, music, the
media and the internet in representation and interpretation of the experience
of warfare.

In particular papers, workshops, reports, and presentations are invited on any
of the following themes:

1. How do we Talk about War?
Portrayal, awareness, language and expression. How do we come to understand
war in contemporary and historical cultures?

* The Language of modern contemporary warfare, the language of war in society,
in the work space and popular culture; obscuration of conditions of being at
war and the condition of peace
* Militarization of society, propaganda, war toys, computer gaming; in
fashion - 'military chic'
* Representing the realities of war versus national interest - images of the
heroism, glory, tacit and explicit justifications of war; the horror of war
and societal responses.

2. Representations and Experiences
Viewing War as a multi-layered social phenomena.

* The individual experience of war, the impact of war, in protest; in the
alleviation of war and in peace building.
* Recovering from war, trauma, rehabilitation.
* The experience of war; art, literature, music, poetry, cinema and the
theatre; the role of the media - journalism, radio, television, the internet;
propaganda;
* The representations and experiences of protest

3. History and Development of Warfare and War Fighting.
How have we fought and why. Lessons learned, mistakes repeated.

* Warfare in human history, revisionism and post-revisionism.
* The sources, origins, and causes of war; why and how do wars begin?
* Means and methods in war - land, sea, air, space, nuclear, chemical,
biological; terror and terrorism; conventional and guerrilla warfare; civil
war; 'total warfare'.
* The nature of warfare; strategy and strategic thought; changes and the
implications of changes in the ways wars are fought; the influence and effect
of technologies; nuclear deterrence/compellance; changes in the nature
and role of military personnel; information and information warfare.

4. Extent, Conduct and Morality
Can war even be distinguished from peace, combatant from non-combatant, who
are legitimate targets? The totalisation of war in modern culture.

* Where are we now? How has war pervaded our society and culture in everyday life?
* The extent of war; geo-political, physical; blockades, sanctions, defence
expenditure and the impact on social and public policy; on social and human
capital.
* The regulation and control of warfare; how is and should warfare be
conducted? What are the limits of conflict? Are there any prohibitions in
fighting a war?
* Globalization; the human, geographic, social and economic boundaries of war
in the modern era.
* Resource warfare, food, water, oil and mineral wealth, challenges in the
21st century

5. Rights and Security
Have the means and methods in war, finally outpaced International law and
norms of behaviour? What protection is available? If truth is the first
casualty in war, are human rights the second?

* Human security issues; protection, shelter, economic security; public health.
* Human rights; protection, promotion and abuses; genocide, ethnic cleansing;
terrorism; scorched earth; war crimes; crimes against humanity.
* Armed non-state actors, roles, practices and regulation.

6. The Boundaries of War
How far will humankind push the limits of acceptable behaviour and practice in
war?

* The 'morality' and the 'ethics' of war; just war; deterrence; pre-emptive
war; defence and self-defence; the influence of nationalism; the place of
human rights; societies and the military; increases in moral sensibilities -
qualms about carpet bombing, collateral damage; the status of combatants
in warfare, the impact of civilians; neutrality.
* War and religion; the important role of religion, the church, and
the intellectual elite in multi-ethnic conflict specifically and in.war
in general; just war, jihad and crusade.
* War and gender; women in war; impact, abuses, role in war as combatants and
in peace building. Gender equality issues and peace building, cultures of
violence in society propagating conflict.
* Children and war, child soldiers, trauma, exposure, conditioning,
propaganda, bereavement, expression though play, art and behaviour.
* Slavery and war; past, present and future; unwilling combatants, from
janissaries to mamelukes, to conscripts and child soldiers.
* Resistance under occupation, where collaboration ends and resistance begins?
Forms of resistance.

7. Prevention and Peace
Can we give peace a chance? Viewing war as un-natural, preventable within a
variety of frameworks. The legal mechanisms and the trans-national social
movements 'waging peace'.

* Peace building; means and methods; negative peace and building a positive
peace; war-termination and nation-building.
* The prevention of war; the role of conflict resolution; avoiding war;
peace-keeping; the role and importance of law and international legal
order; the rise and impact of non-violent movements.
* Conscientious objection, alternative service.
* The Peace Movement

8. Non-state Actors and NGOs in War Breaking the state conundrum,
participation in relief from the depredations of war, alleviating the
suffering, advocacy from theatres of war. Or compromising humanitarian Aid?
Force multipliers? Abrogating combatant's responsibilities toward their
populations.

* History: The Quakers to the Red Cross and beyond.
* NGOs, the 'third space' actors in the relief of the impact of warfare, aid
and development programmes, refugees and IDPs, child soldiers, landmines /
cluster munitions; small arms light weapons (SALW/DDR), NGOs prolonging
conflict by abrogating state and combatants responsibilities in time of
conflict.
* Armed non-state actors. Terrorists? Freedom fighters? Private security
forces. Mercenaries in the modern world.

9. Future War: Revolutions in Military Affairs: Emerging Types of Warfare.
Be afraid, be very afraid. Are there no limits to mans inhumanity to man?

* Cyber-war Virtual war; cyber-terrorism; cyber-power, cyber-war; computer
technologies in the conduct of war.
* Technology leaps - acquiring WMD
* Space war - fantasy or an emerging reality? Issue in the militarisation and
weaponisation of space.
* Bio-warfare: gene warfare; the genetic codes of agriculture and livestock as
targets in war

The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel
proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word
abstracts should be submitted by Friday 12th January 2007. If an abstract is
accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday
13th April 2007.

300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Joint Chairs;
abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, PDF or RTF formats.

Organising Chairs
Graeme Goldsworthy
Harvard Medical School
Vrij Universiteit Medisch Centrum, Amsterdam
Healthnet-TPO, Netherlands
E-Mail: ggoldsworthy[at]gmail.com

Andrew Wilson
Professor of Strategy,
Strategy and Policy Department,
United States Naval War College, USA
E-Mail: andrew.wilson[at]nwc.navy.mil

Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Wroslyn Road, Freeland, Oxfordshire
United Kingdom
E-Mail: wvw4[at]inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research
projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests
to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.

Three volumes of themed papers are in preparation and/or in print from the
previous meetings of this project. All papers accepted for and presented at
this conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected
papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be published in a
themed hard copy volume.

For further details about the project please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ptb/wvw/war.htm

For further details about the conference please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ptb/wvw/wvw4/cfp.html