Great War in the Middle East (1911-1923)
This major international conference, organised jointly by the War Studies Department of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the Changing Character of War Programme at the University of Oxford, will re-examine the origins, conduct and consequences of the First World War in the Middle East. The voluminous historiography of the conflict remains, however, focused on the European experience of 1914-18. This conference brings together historians of the Middle East and the First World War to discuss this formative event and to relate the Great War to the broader period of conflict that affected the Ottoman Empire from 1911 to 1923.
The conference will provide a forum for scholars from around the world to examine the complexities of the Middle East’s Great War, and to discuss new avenues for research and debate. This was a region in which the great imperial powers of the early twentieth century struggled for control, and the resulting conflict unleashed powerful nationalist, imperial, religious, and ethnic dynamics that continue to both fascinate historians and to shape the region to this day. The conference will address these inter-related factors, and their role in the breaking and making of empires and nation-states in the Middle East. In doing so, the breadth of papers and discussions will integrate military, social, cultural, and political histories together to provide a broader history of the Middle East and the First World War.
If you are interested in attending please email Dr James Kitchen (james.kitchen101@mod.uk) for a copy of the conference information pack, booking form and the security form.
Registration Fee: £ 100 | £ 75 (postgraduate students and early career researchers)
Conference Venue: Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Camberley, Surrey GU15 4PQ , UK
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Programme:
Wednesday 20 April 2016
09.30 Registration
10.30 Welcome and Opening Remarks - RMAS Commandant and Director of Studies
10.40 Panel 1 - Global Strategy and the Middle East
Chair: Matthew Hughes (Brunel)
James Renton (Edge Hill): The British Idea of the Middle East and its Consequences
Hervé François (Historial de la Grande Guerre): France
Christopher Read (Warwick): Great Game, Great War, Great Revolution - Continuity and Change in Russian and Soviet Policy in the Middle East, 1914-1922
Peter Lieb (ZMSBw, Potsdam): German Policy towards the Middle East in 1918
12.30 Lunch
13.30 Panel 2 - Beliefs and War
Chair: John Darwin (Oxford)
Adrian Gregory (Oxford): Western "Crusading" in the Middle East
Roberto Mazza (Limerick): Alone, with the Enemy or With God? The Christian Churches of Palestine during the War
John Slight (Cambridge): Jihad Beyond the Ottoman Empire
15.30 Break
16.00 Panel 3 - Military Operations and Adaptation
Chair: James Kitchen (RMAS)
Kaushik Roy (Jadavpur): Learning and Fighting - The Indian Army in Mesopotamia and Syria, 1914-1918
Aimée Fox-Godden (Birmingham): "From Experience Gained in France" - Disseminating and Adapting Western Front Lessons in the Middle Eastern Theatres, 1914-1918
Metin Gurcan (Bilkent): Gallipoli
18.00 Break
19.00 Formal Conference Dinner (optional – must be booked separately)
Thursday 21 April 2016
09.30 Panel 4 - Imperial Home Fronts and "Total War"
Chair: Roberto Mazza (Limerick)
Leila Fawaz (Tufts): Civilians and Soldiers in the Levant, 1914-1918
Mario Ruiz (Hofstra): Martial Law, Rural Labourers, and the Egyptian Home Front, 1914-1918
Oliver Bast (Manchester): "The Rape of Persia"? – World War I in Neutral Iran as a Humanitarian Disaster
11.00 Break
11.30 Panel 5 - Tactics and Combat in the Middle East
Chair: Robert Johnson (Oxford)
David Murphy (Maynooth): The Arab Revolt, 1916-1918. Sideshow or Major Campaign?
Nikolas Gardner (RMC Canada): Tactics and Morale in Indian Expeditionary Force "D", 1915-1916
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Panel 6 - Building and Challenging Post-War Empires
Chair: Peter Lieb (ZMSBw, Potsdam)
James Kitchen (RMAS): Egypt 1919 - The British Army and Counter-Revolutionary Operations
Robert Fletcher (Warwick): Britain's Borderlands in the Post-Ottoman World
Michael Provence (UCSD): Ottoman Military Culture and Anti-colonial Insurgency in Greater Syria
15.30 Break
16.00 Panel 7 - Representations of the First World War in the Middle East
Chair: Adrian Gregory (Oxford)
Justin Fantauzzo (Memorial University, St John’s): Amongst Gyppos, Jews, Arabs, and Abdul - Imperial Soldiers and the Levant in Inter-war Fiction
Nadia Atia (QMUL): Murder in Mesopotamia - Agatha Christie’s Life and Work in the Middle East
Jenny Macleod (Hull): Memory/Representation of Gallipoli
Gizem Tongo (Oxford): Ottoman Art of the First World War
Alev Karaduman (Hacipteppe University): Ottoman Literature and Modern Turkey
17.30 Break
19.00 Buffet Dinner (optional – must be booked separately)
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Contact:
Dr James Kitchen
War Studies Department
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Camberley
Surrey GU15 4PQ
UK