Reassessing the Franco-Prussian War 150 years on

10 September 2020, 09:00 to 11 September 2020, 14:00 Strand Campus , London

Thursday 10 September 2020

9.00 Registration (open space, Anatomy Museum)

9.30 Panel 1: Politics/Geopolitics of the Franco-Prussian War Chair/Commentator: Dr. Michael Rowe (Reader in European History, King’s College London) 1.1 Dr. Olivier Zajec (Directeur de l’Institut d’Études de Stratégie et de Défense (IESD), Faculté de droit, Université Jean Moulin – Lyon III) Geopolitics of the Franco-Prussian War 1.2 Professor Geoffrey Wawro (Professor of Military History at the University of North Texas, and Director of the UNT Military History Center) The Franco-Prussian War as the ‘Third War of German Unification’

1.3 Dr. Christoph Nübel (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, Zentrum für Militärgeschichte und Sozialwissenschaften der Bundeswehr, Potsdam) Bismarck, 1870, and the problem of civil-military relations in Germany

1.4 Dr. Karine Varley (Lecturer in French, University of Strathclyde Glasgow) European Neutrality and the Isolation of the French Republic, September 1870 to March 1871

11.00 Morning Coffee Break

11.30 Panel 2: The Franco-Prussian War and the forging of modern France Chair/Commentator: Professor Joe Maiolo (Professor of International History and Director of the Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War)

2.1 Professor Robert Tombs (Professor of Modern European History, University of Cambridge) The Franco-Prussian War and the forging of the French Third Republic 2.2 Dr. Quentin Deluermoz (Maitre de conférence, Université Paris 13) Paris Commune

2.3 Dr. Julia Nicholls (Lecturer in French & European Studies, King’s College London) The Paris Commune and Franco-Prussian War in French Revolutionary Thought

13.00 Lunch Break

14.00 Panel 3: Fighting the Franco-Prussian War Chair/Commentator: Colonel Armel Dirou (Army Attaché, French Embassy to the United Kingdom) 3.1 Professor Mark Hewitson (Professor of German History and Politics, University College London) Cultures of Violence in the Franco-Prussian War

3.2 Professor Dr. Gerd Krumeich (Düsseldorf University) The Franco-Prussian War and the Forging of the “People in arms”

3.3 Professor Olivier Forcade (Faculté des Lettres de Sorbonne Université) Isabel Intelligence in the Franco-Prussian War

15.30 Afternoon Coffee Break

16.00 Panel 4: The impact of the Franco-Prussian War on military thought Chair/Commentator: David Ellery, (Professor in Practice in the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham)

4.1 Dr. Guillaume Lasconjarias (délégué à l’éducation de défense chez Ministère de l’Éducation nationale) Foch and the intellectual legacy of the Franco-Prussian war

4.2 Dr. Robert Foley (Dean of Academic Studies/Head of Department at the Defence Studies Department, Joint Services Command and Staff College) The Franco-Prussian War and the development of German military thought

4.3 Dr. Robert Johnson (Senior Research Fellow, Pembroke College Oxford) The Franco-Prussian War and British military thinking

18.00 Keynote Lecture: KL Professor Brian Holden-Reid (Professor of American History and Military Institutions) Sir Michael Howard and the Franco-Prussian War

20:00 Dinner

Friday 11 September 2020

9:00 Panel 5: Fighting the Franco-Prussian War II Chair/Commentator: Dr. Jaspar Heinzen (Lecturer in Modern History, University of York)

5.1 Professor Hew Strachan (Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews) The impact of the Franco-Prussian War and the history of surrender

5.3 Dr. Wencke Meteling (Assistant Professor, Department of History, Philipps Universität Marburg) Regimental ideologies in the Prussian and French armies of 1870

5.4 Dr. Arndt Weinrich (Freie Universität Berlin) Imagining future wars after 1870

11.00 Morning Coffee Break

11:30 Roundtable: The Continuing significance of the Franco-Prussian War in the History of War