Project description
Targeting civilian populations in war
Attempts to influence civilian morale became prevalent in various warring states, spanning democracies and authoritarian regimes on both the right and left, despite notable differences. The ERC-funded WAR-ON-CIVILIANS project will explore the evolution of warfare targeting civilian populations, focusing on aerial bombardment, civil defence, food blockades, and home front campaigns aimed at rationing food and influencing morale. The research will investigate how the knowledge and practices developed leading up to World War II resulted in systematic attacks on civilians and the mobilisation of home fronts. This project will connect Japan’s actions in China and the Asia-Pacific with those of Britain, France, Germany, the USA, as well as cases from Italy, the Spanish Civil War, and the Soviet Union.
Objective
This may be one of the most ambitious efforts to apply the methods of global history to the study of war and society in several countries around the world. We explore the evolution of types of warfare that explicitly targeted the enemy’s civil population. WAR-ON-CIVILIANS focuses on (1) aerial bombardment, and civil defense against it, (2) food blockades, and home front campaigns to ration food, and (3) efforts to “demoralize” enemy civilians, while boosting “morale” at home. This is much more than a comparison of discrete case studies. Global or transnational history emphasizes the connections between nations. Here we investigate how the circulation of knowledge and practices culminated by World War II in systematic attacks on civilians and the creation of home fronts that mobilized civilians. The spatial sweep is global, going well beyond conventional Eurocentric accounts. We will connect Japan’s long World War II in China and Asia-Pacific with that in Britain, Germany, France, and USA—plus the seldom-integrated cases of Italy, Spanish Civil War, and Soviet Union. The PI is uniquely positioned to direct the project. A leading historian of Japan, he also writes transnational histories based on extensive archival research in Britain, Germany, and France. And in its temporal sweep, WAR-ON-CIVILIANS breaks new ground by researching transnational developments going back to 1905, when Japan demonstrated new forms of mobilizing civilians in defeating Russia, and the British Admiralty began planning a wartime blockade of the German food supply. We examine the “lessons” of World War I, smaller wars, and developments in the oft-neglected interwar decades that led to the assault on cities in World War II. The project analyzes the impact of political regimes. Bombing, blockade, and civilian morale became common features in a variety of warring states—from democracies to authoritarian regimes on Right and Left, despite important differences.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history modern history
- social sciences political sciences government systems democracy
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-ADG
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75341 Paris
France
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