Enemy Encounters in Modern Warfare

While the 1914 Christmas truces have a mythological status in British culture, intimate interactions with the enemy are, this interdisciplinary edited collection shows, a staple of modern warfare. Spanning multiple conflicts around the world, from the nineteenth century to the present Russia/Ukraine war, the chapters consider how fellow-feeling with the enemy during war has been both fueled and limited by constellations of class, gender, nationality, race, religion, sexuality, and shared experience. Scrutinizing asymmetries of power in enemy encounters, the instability of divisions between allies and enemies, and the heterogeneity of experiences within one army or side, contributors to this book confront a central question: how far is thinking of the enemy as an 'equal' in some way a precondition for non-violent interactions with them in war? In some cases, the ease of fraternization and reciprocity between the lines raises questions about the necessity of a clear feeling of enmity for fighting to continue, while in others, exclusionary attitudes based on racial or colonial hierarchies or the criminality of irregular warfare result in extreme violence and differential valuations of enemy lives.

Provides an intersectional exploration of the significance of race, gender, class and age in enemy encounters Reveals insights into a rarely discussed aspect of war spanning conflicts around the world from the nineteenth century Includes interdisciplinary approaches ranging from across the humanities, international relations and military studies

Auteur

Holly Furneaux is Professor at Cardiff University, UK.

Matilda Greig is a Historian at the National Army Museum in London, UK.

Contenu

1: Introduction.- 2: Encounters with Peninsular War Guerrillas and the Marginalisation of Irregular Warfare.- 3: 'He said he was an Irishman also': Irish American Union and Confederate Encounter Stories in the American Civil War.- 4: Encountering the Enemy in Fin-de-siècle Colonial Wars: Racial Difference and the Limits of Fellow Feeling.- 5: Global Sexual Encounters with Racialized 'Others' in War, Genocide and Captivity, 1905-1945.- 6: 'Yoors truly German': A Micro-history of Poetic Enemy Encounters of the 1917 Retreat.- 7: Dying with the Enemy: Prisoner of War Deaths in First World War Britain.- 8: Racial Encounters in Wartime Post/Colonial Indo-Myanmar Borderlands.- 9: 'Children Made to Carry Bombs': Staging the 'Emergency' in Malaya (1948-60).- 10: Trusting Your Enemy: American Encounters with the Kit Carson Scouts During the Vietnam War, 19661973.- 11: Between 'Nostalgia' and 'Self-Othering': Self-Orientalism, Strategic Nostalgia and Self-Othering Practises in Islamic State Propaganda Imagery.- 12: Memorializing the Enemy Three Ways: Australia, Japan, the USA.- 13: Afterword.