Friday 30th April – Sunday 2nd May 2010
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers
The opening decade of the 21st century has seen war assume a number of new forms – new at least in relation to the 20th century. So, for instance, the West's war in Afghanistan is already longer than WW2, and shows no sign of coming to an
end; the nature of those engaged in war has widened to include a variety of non-state agents; and war itself has come to include arguably justifiable tactics and strategies previously either excluded or at least not recognised as legitimate. In short, the distinction between war and peace is becoming increasingly unclear.
The 2010 conference is part of a continuing and explicitly multi- and inter-disciplinary conversation that aims to bring together people from a wide range of disciplines to focus on this centrally significant aspect of our social lives
in order better to understand the nature and place of war and peace.
The main themes are outlined below: however, we are also pleased to receive proposals that extend or complement these. We seek contributions from both practitioners and academics, and from the widest possible range of intellectual interests and commitment.
1. What Counts as War; What Counts as Peace?
~ The militarization of civil life: legislation; economics; surveillance; terrorism; torture.
~ States of exception and their role between peace and war.
~ Possible forms of warfare: economic blockade; propaganda; drones; virtual weapons and wars; alternatives to physical force.
2. Actors and Agents
~ The nature and evaluation of non-state combatants: private companies; ad-hoc
supranational organisations; the UN.
~ War and capitalism: state, corporation and globalization; war as an arm of domestic policy; low-level wars since WW2 as forms of testing and preparation.
~ Responsibility for and in war: social and individual agency.
3. Explaining, Understanding and Judging War – and Peace
~ Killing: why is it prima facie wrong?
~ War and utopianism: ideals as motivation for/cause of war.
~ The interplay between language and physical reality in warfare and its promulgation.
~ The representation and communication of suffering.
~ War as aesthetic object.
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 27th November 2009. If an abstract is accepted for
the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 12th March 2009.
300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs;
abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Joint Organising Chairs:
Bob Brecher
Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics
Faculty of Arts, Brighton University,
United Kingdom
E-mail: R.Brecher@bton. ac.uk
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader
Inter-Disciplinary. Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom
E-mail: wvw7@inter-discipli nary.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.
A number of volumes of eBooks and themed hard copy volumes are in preparation and/or in print from the previous meetings of this project. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).
For further details about the project please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/hostility-and-violence/war-virtual-war-human-security/
For further details about the conference please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/hostility-and-violence/
war-virtual-war-human-security/call-for-papers/
Please quote 10 Academic Resources Daily in your application to this opportunity!
