The War & Diplomacy Podcast: From the Centre for War and Diplomacy at Lancaster University

In this episode,  Dr Keith Hamilton discusses the vibrant social and administrative history of the nineteenth-century Foreign Office at Whitehall with the CWD's Prof Gaynor Johnson.  Dr Hamilton, formerly a historian of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, has evaluated the records and accounts of domestic staff rather than just the higher levels of government agents to create a more comprehen...

In this podcast, Dr Thomas Mills, Senior Lecturer in Diplomatic and International History at Lancaster University and Director of the Centre for War and Diplomacy is joined by Jussi Hanhimäki, Professor of International History and Politics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. The pair discuss Jussi’s latest book, Pax Transatlantica: America and Europe in t...

Dr Marco Wyss, Reader in International History and Security at Lancaster University and a Deputy Director of the Centre for War and Diplomacy, is joined by Dr James Rogers, Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at SDU and History Hit Warfare podcast host, on the topic of “Drones: From ‘Precision Warfare’ to Today’s Battlefields”. Drone warfare, perceived to be a relatively mod...

The Centre for War and Diplomacy at Lancaster University and the British International History Group co-hosted ‘The Falklands War at 40: Voices of the Conflict’ on Thursday 26 May 2022, attended by staff and students, alongside members of local history groups, and the general public. This event brought together researchers and curators, joined by a Falklands veteran and Lancaster alumnus Major Gen...

Dr Stephanie Wright, lecturer in Modern European History at Lancaster University and Dr Regina Mühlhäuser, Senior Researcher at the Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Research and Culture discuss what the history of sexual violence perpetrated by the German Wehrmacht in the Second World War can tell us about sexual violence in current wars, including the war in Ukraine. This podcast grapple...

Spyros Tsoutsoumpis, associate lecturer and researcher at the Centre for War and Diplomacy at Lancaster University is joined by Dr Umit Kurt, research fellow at The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute/Polonsky Academy in Jerusalem. Joining Spyros and Umit to talk about the Armenian Genocide in Aintab are Professor Janet Klein and Dr Max Bergholz. Professor Janet Klein is an expert in the field of Ottoman...

Dr Thomas Mills, Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University and Director of the Centre for War and Diplomacy is joined by Patrick Salmon, Chief Historian at the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development office. In his seventeen years in office, Patrick has published a number of volumes in the flagship series, Documents on British Policy Overseas , including works on German unification at the end of the...

This podcast discusses the merger of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Not only has Winfried extensively worked on this topic but it has also become a contentious historical issue in recent years as archival material has become available thirty years after the event. Heinemann and Wyss question whether the...

This special episode marks the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Boroughbridge and the execution of Thomas, earl of Lancaster, in 1322. This was the bloody end of a civil war that scarred one of England’s most troubled and turbulent reigns, that of Edward II. Dr Sophie Ambler is the Deputy Director of the Centre for War and Diplomacy and author of The Song of Simon de Montfort: England's First Re...

In this episode, Dr Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh discusses the research behind his new book, Iranian Women and Gender in the Iran-Iraq War (Gender, Culture, and Politics in the Middle East) (Syracuse University Press, 2021) , with Dr Maryam Ghorbankarimi.  In recognition of the upcoming anniversary of the Iran-Iran War (1980-1988) on 22 September, Dr Farzaneh examines the role of women in this con...

This special episode of the War & Diplomacy Podcast Series is a recording of an event that was hosted on 16 June 2021. This discussion, led by the Deputy-Director Dr Thomas Mills, highlights aspects of Alistair Burt's career as an MP and a minister in the Foreign Office.  The conversation details several notable diplomatic events that took place during his tenure in office. About Alistair...

In 1939, South Africa entered World War II on the side of the Allied powers, although not without internal opposition. The German government capitalised on these domestic rifts and secretly engaged the leaders of the pro-fascist Ossewabrandwag in order to encourage sedition across South Africa and intercept naval intelligence- ultimately to undermine the strategic importance of the Cape of Good Ho...

Papal calls to crusade were some of the most influential texts in the medieval West: key messages, crafted at the papal court, that were disseminated and preached across Christendom to mobilise men and women of every level of society to take up the crusading cause. These calls were a dynamic element of a crusading society, in which all Christians were responsible for the fate of the Holy Land and...

The series of conflicts known as the Wars of the Roses tore through fifteenth-century England: the houses of Lancaster and York and their supporters fought over notions of good governance and the right to wear the crown, while vast swathes of the population took up arms in rebellion or on the battlefield, or lived in fear of rampaging armies. What can historians deduce about popular involvement in...

Dr Matthew Bennett, leading expert in medieval military history, discusses the technology, economy, and ideology of warfare in the medieval age with Dr Sophie Ambler, Deputy Director of the Centre for War and Diplomacy at Lancaster University. Dr Bennett describes the connections between warfare, trade and finance in the medieval West, as well as military technology – from bows to armour, artiller...

Dr Hugo Meijer is a CNRS Research Fellow at Sciences Po Paris, Center for International Studies (CERI), and is the Founding Director of The European Initiative for Security Studies (EISS), a multidisciplinary network of scholars that share the goal of consolidating security studies in Europe. His research interests lie at the intersection of foreign policy analysis and security studies, with a par...

Dr Nathaniel Powell discusses France's Wars in Chad: Military Intervention and Decolonization in Africa with Dr Marco Wyss of the CWD. Dr Powell completed his PhD in International History and Politics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva in 2013. His research focuses on the postcolonial relationship between France and its former African colonies, particula...

The Albigensian Crusade of the early thirteenth century saw crusading used to combat heresy in southern France. Dr Gregory Lippiatt, in discussion with the CWD’s Dr Sophie Ambler, discusses how the crusade came about, its brutality and violence, and the role of Simon V of Montfort. Dr Lippiatt also discusses developments in governance introduced by the Statutes of Pamiers (1212), a crusader consti...

In this episode, Dr Anaïs Waag (University of Lincoln) talks to the CWD's Dr Sophie Ambler about some of the thirteenth century's most notable women, and how their letters illuminate their role in diplomacy, warfare, and the commemoration of battle. From civil wars to crusades, royal women like Berenguela and Blanche of Castile and Eleanor and Marguerite of Provence played a vital part in securing...

In this interview, Dr Marco Wyss from the CWD and Prof Mark Bradley discuss the Vietnam War from the perspective of the Vietnamese, the United States' role as a guarantor of human rights, and ongoing work in the history of the Global South. Prof Mark Bradley is a Bernadotte E. Schmitt Distinguished Service Professor of International History and the College, the Deputy Dean of Division of the Socia...

In this episode, Simon Collis CMG interviewed by the CWD's Nic Coombs discusses his experiences in the Middle East as former British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Qatar.  Simon discusses the craft of diplomacy giving fascinating insights into warfare in the region, religious strife, human rights and the role of the diplomat in representing their country's interests. Simon Collis...

 The Pilgrims Society was an elite dining club which developed an important role in the broader political relationship between the US and Britain in the first half of the twentieth century. Dr Stephen Bowman talking with the CWD's Dr Tom Mills depicts the Pilgrims and their activities as an early form of what we now refer to as public diplomacy. Dr Stephen Bowman, is a Lecturer in British Pol...

Dr Flavia Gasbarri (King's College London) and Dr Marco Wyss (Lancaster University) discuss the Cold War in Africa, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s. Dr Gasbarri examines the United States' role in the conflict, and how the end of the Cold War affected US foreign policy in Africa. About the guest: Dr Gasbarri is co-Chair of the KCL Africa Research Group and a member of the KCL Centre for Gr...

Prof Gaynor Johnson explores the often-overlooked role civil servants in the formulation of foreign policy, including the role of women in the British Foreign Office. She discusses innovative methodological approaches to the study of diplomatic history, including the use of prosopography. Gaynor has published widely in the field of international history on topics ranging from fanaticism and warfar...

Prof Winfried Heinemann and Dr Marco Wyss discuss Operation Valkyrie (the unsuccessful assassination attempt of Adolf HItler in 1944) and the legacy of military resistance against Hitler.  About the guest: Colonel Professor Winfried Heinemann has spent his career at the Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr in Potsdam, where he worked in editorial, research, and le...