Lest we forget

What can the history of past wars teach us about current security dilemmas?

Eminent historians explore this question and more in openSecurity's series, Lest we forget.

In association with

Wilson, Trotsky, Assange: lessons from the history of diplomatic transparency

Daniele Archibugi and Marina Chiarugi 28 February 2011

IMMANUEL KANT is against censorship!Bentham and Kant were clear that diplomatic secrecy was bad. So were Wilson and Trotsky. And while Wikileaks may not be the ideal organisation to take diplomatic publicity to a new level, we should embrace its challenge.

WikiLeaks: imperial precedent

James Renton 21 December 2010
The last time this happened, the British government was hoping to combine a modern-looking commitment to nation-building with the old imperial aim of political domination. Wilkileaks shows that all too little has changed.

Rhetoric and reality: the clash of civilisations from Classical Greece to today

Naoise MacSweeney 1 September 2010
The concept of the ‘clash of civilisations’ is usually traced back to Classical Greece. In Classical times as today, this idea of an unbridgeable gap between the West and the Rest does not describe reality, but is instead a line of political rhetoric. The article continues our series Lest we forget, an editorial project in association with History & Policy, asking historians to reflect on wars gone by and the light they shed on present conflicts.

Napoleon's conquest and its legacy

Alan Forrest 1 June 2010
Alan Forrest explores the legacy of the empire and state-system imposed on Europe during the Napoleonic wars. The article continues our series Lest we forget, an editorial project in association with History & Policy, asking historians to reflect on wars gone by and the light they shed on present conflicts.

The forgotten impact of a war that didn't happen

Holger Nehring 30 March 2010
Nuclear weapons were at the heart of the Cold War. Yet the broader impact of the arms race on politics and society has been forgotten. This is unfortunate, argues Holger Nehring, as the impact of the shared fear of total war that the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union created lies at the core of the problems in the transatlantic relationship. President Obama’s attempts to create a nuclear weapons free world and his willingness to sign a new agreement on the reduction of intercontinental nuclear weapons with his Russian counterpart President Medvedev only hides this uncomfortable reality.

Forgotten lessons: Palestine and the British empire

James Renton 19 March 2010
While the conflict that is the legacy of British involvement in Palestine daily captures world headlines, Britain's foster-role is too often ignored. Such an omission is all the more tragic, James Renton argues, since mandate era misjudgements are being readily repeated.

Iraq and the fig-leaf of just war theory

Bob Brecher 8 February 2010
Dissension over the legality of the Iraq war, and the history of western military interventions since 1945, reveals the paucity of international law's moral underpinnings. The article continues our series Lest we forget: remembering historic conflicts, openSecurity’s new editorial project in association with History & Policy, asking historians to reflect on wars gone by and the light they shed on present conflicts.

The politics of poppy day

Lucy Noakes 25 January 2010

Following the threatened demonstration of Islam4UK in Wootton Bassett, Lucy Noakes explores the fraught history of war remembrance. The article launches Lest we forget: remembering historic conflicts, openSecurity’s new editorial project in association with History & Policy, asking historians to reflect on wars gone by and the light they shed on present conflicts.

Why openSecurity?

openSecurity on Twitter

openSecurity on Twitter

Columnists

Latest article:

Latest article:

Latest article:

Themes

Selected Theme

Transitional

Transitional justice

More

Regions

Selected Region

Latin America and the Caribbean

More

Shock and Awe

A hundred years of bombing: what has it done to us?

Lest we forget

Lest we forget

Syndicate content