Conference: Reassessing the Franco-Prussian War 150 years on (6-7 May 2021)
This two-day conference, organised under the auspices of King’s College London’s Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War, in conjunction with the Embassy of France in the UK, seeks to interrogate the significance and legacies of some the key political, social, cultural, and military transformations brought about by this crucial turning point in both European and world history.
Full info/registration: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/reassessing-the-franco-prussian-war-150-years-on-1

Thursday 6 May 2021
9.00 Opening remarks – Dr Michael Rowe, Reader in European History, King’s College London
9.30 Panel 1: Politics/Geopolitics of the Franco-Prussian War
Chair/Discussant: Dr Anna Ross, Associate Professor of Modern European History, University of Warwick 1.
Geopolitics of the Franco-Prussian War – Dr Olivier Zajec, Directeur de l’Institut d’Études de Stratégie et de Défense (IESD), Université Jean Moulin -Lyon III.
The Franco-Prussian War as the ‘Third War of German Unification’ – Professor Geoffrey Wawro, Professor of Military History at the University of North Texas, and Director of the UNT Military History Center
Bismarck, 1870, and the problem of civil-military relations in Germany – Dr Christoph Nübel, Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, Zentrum für Militärgeschichte und Sozialwissenschaften der Bundeswehr, Potsdam
European Neutrality and the Isolation of the French Republic, September 1870 to March 1871 – Dr Karine Varley, Lecturer in French, University of Strathclyde Glasgow
11.00 Morning Coffee Break
11.30 Panel 2: The Franco-Prussian War and the forging of modern France
Chair/Discussant: Dr Talita Ilacqua, Deakin Visiting Fellow (University of Oxford)
The Franco-Prussian War and the forging of the French Third Republic – Professor Robert Tombs, Professor of Modern European History, University of Cambridge
Paris Commune – Dr Quentin Deluermoz, Maitre de conférence, Université Paris 1
The Paris Commune and Franco-Prussian War in French Revolutionary Thought – Dr Julia Nicholls, Lecturer in French & European Studies, King’s College London
13.00 Lunch Break
14.00 Panel 3: Fighting the Franco-Prussian War
Chair: Colonel Armel Dirou, Army Attaché, French Embassy to the United Kingdom
Cultures of Violence in the Franco-Prussian War – Professor Mark Hewitson, Professor of German History and Politics, University College London
The consequences of the Franco-Prussian War on the current French political structures – Colenel Armel Dirou, Army Attaché, French Embassy to the United Kingdom
Intelligence in the Franco-Prussian War – Professor Olivier Forcade, Faculté des Lettres de Sorbonne Université
15.30 Afternoon Coffee Break
16.00 Panel 4: The impact of the Franco-Prussian War on military thought
Chair: Professor David Ellery, Professor in Practice in the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham
Foch and the intellectual legacy of the Franco-Prussian war – Dr Guillaume Lasconjarias, Senior Strategic Analyst, French MoD
The Franco-Prussian War and the development of German military thought – Dr Robert Foley, Reader in Defence Studies, Defence Studies Department
The Franco-Prussian War and British military thinking – Dr Robert Johnson, Senior Research Fellow, Pembroke College Oxford
18.00 Virtual Drinks
Friday 7 May 2021
11.00 Opening remarks
11:30 Roundtable: The Continuing significance of the Franco-Prussian War in the History of War
Prof Hew Strachan, Bishop Wardlaw Professor, School of International Relations, St Andrews
Dr Karine Varley, Lecturer in French, University of Strathclyde Glasgow
Dr Julia Nicholls, Lecturer in French & European Studies, King’s College London
Dr Jasper Heinzen, Lecturer in Modern History, University of York
Dr Mareike König, Deputy Director, German Historical Institute Paris
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== Programme (PDF): https://www.kcl.ac.uk/dsd/assets/conf-programme5.pdf
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
redaktionsteam (May 6, 2021). Conference: Reassessing the Franco-Prussian War 150 years on (6-7 May 2021). Guerre franco-allemande / Deutsch-Französischer Krieg 1870/71. Retrieved February 9, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/pdzt