2025 Symposium

Beyond the Trenches: Indirect Approaches and Irregular Warfare in WWI

Friday, Oct. 24 – Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025

 


Above the clouds and under choppy waters, World War I was not only fought in the trenches.


 

Riflemen “going over the top” is the iconic battle image of World War I.

But as large armies fought for mere meters of dirt and mud along the Western Front, strategists increasingly turned to finding other ways to gain advantages over enemies. WWI veteran and British military theorist B. H. Liddell Hart advanced the idea of an “indirect approach” in battle. Aviation technology, tunneling and mining, proxy fighters, insurgents and spies – these all achieved flexibility and surprised the enemy.

Explore the wide variety of battle strategies beyond trenches, including:

  • Diplomatic, economic and information warfare
  • Proxy forces and irregular warfare in the Age of Empire
  • New technologies: aviation, tunneling and mining
  • Maritime operations in support of land forces
  • Environmental and geographic considerations

 

Who should attend?

All who have a general or professional interest in the periods prior to, during and after World War I. We especially recommend this symposium to educators, historians and members of organizations that study these periods.

 

Hybrid Symposium – hosted online and in-person at the Museum and Memorial

Registration opens Spring 2025


 

Call for Proposals

Are you interested in presenting at the 2025 Symposium? We invite you to apply by 5 p.m. Central Time on Monday, June 30.

  • Selected candidates will present online on Thursday, Oct. 23.

Proposals from early career researchers are strongly encouraged. Applicants will be asked to provide a sample of work that pertains to the theme of the symposium.

Learn more and apply

Speakers
Coming soon

Schedule
Coming soon

Register
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Hosted in Partnership with:

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Western Front Association logo featuring two stylized poppies on a blue circular background.
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International Society for First World War Studies logo: six red blocks with white lettering that read 'ISFWWS'
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WW1 Historical Association logo: a circle shape made out of barbed wire surrounding the words, '1914-1918 / WW1 / ww1ha.org'
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Modern War Institute at West Point logo: a stylized 'M', 'W' and 'I' combined to look like a shield

Past Symposia

War and Morality Digital Summit

Nov. 15-16, 2024

As the defining event of the 20th century, how does World War I inform our understanding of “just” war?

Despite the efforts of multinational coalitions like the Triple Entente and League of Nations, crises have persisted throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, revealing the strategic and ethical complexities that define modern conflict and its impact on our global society.

Learn more

 

Milestones and Cornerstones

Oct. 27-28, 2023

1923 ushered in a new era of military commemoration in the wake of WWI. Remembrance became less about victory and more about peace: monuments and cemeteries, enshrining the memory of those who served and sacrificed, were built not as trophies of the past but as touchstones for the future.

Learn more

Watch Presentations

 

Shifting Tides: Citizenship in a World of Conflict

Nov. 4-5, 2022

Engulfed by four years of total war, the world emerged transformed. Amid the unfamiliarity of wartime and post-war societies, populations were both bound by tradition and buoyed by bids to reshape political, economic and social landscapes.

Learn more

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Fractured Fronts

Oct. 29-30, 2021

As the Great War “ended,” many questions confronted the global community that remain just as pressing today as they did one hundred years ago: How does war impact how we understand ourselves and our place in the world? What does it mean to “come home” when the places and people you called home have changed irrevocably?

Learn more

Watch Presentations

 

1919: Peace?

Nov. 1-2, 2019

1919 was a year of sweeping changes in a landscape dramatically altered by years of unrelenting warfare. Leaders advanced towards elusive peace amid political instability, economic uncertainty and social conflict. As terms of the Treaty of Versailles were negotiated, a world reordered faced decisions and realities that would leave a complex legacy.

Learn More

Watch Presentations

 

1918: Crucible of War

Nov. 1-3, 2018

Explore the irrevocable changes five years of cataclysmic conflict wrought on the global stage. As borders were literally and figuratively redrawn, Allies celebrated a victory and the world came to terms with the irreparable devastation and losses of the “war to end all wars.”

Learn More

Watch Presentations

 

1917: America Joins the Fight

Nov. 3-4, 2017

The United States emerged from its traditional isolation in 1917 and began to take its place in the forefront of world affairs. As the U.S. mobilized its farms, industries, and formed a large army, it confronted curtailing civil liberties and faced a possible demand for equity in return for support.

Learn more

Watch Presentations

 

Remembering Muted Voices

Oct. 19-22, 2017

Although the U.S. actively took part in the conflict for only 18 months, the war effort introduced mass conscription, transformed the American economy and mobilized popular support through war bonds, patriotic rallies and anti-German propaganda. Nevertheless, many people desired a negotiated peace, opposed American intervention, refused to support the war effort and even imagined future world orders that could eliminate war.

Learn more

Watch Presentations

 

1916: Total War

Nov. 4-5, 2016

Explore the pivotal year of 1916, where global socio-political tensions created by World War I continued escalation and irrevocably changed the economic, military, and cultural landscape of the world.

Learn more

Watch Presentations

 

1915: Empires at War

Nov. 6-7, 2015

Explore the rising tensions in America and the globally escalating conflict that defined the world in 1915. Follow the trajectories of different countries around the world as the conflict escalated to total war, including fighting in the colonies and East Asia, stalemate in the West, Churchill’s disaster at Gallipoli, mobilization at home, and the polarization of American society around the issue of war.

Learn more

Watch Presentations

 

1914: Global War and American Neutrality

Nov. 7-8, 2014

Examine the origins of, reactions to and early confrontations in the First World War including the political, diplomatic, military, cultural and scientific developments prior to the war that contributed to its outbreak.

Learn more

Watch Presentations

Call for Proposals

Due: Monday, June 30, 2025

We strongly encourage proposals from early career researchers.

Applicants will be asked to provide a sample of work that pertains to the theme of the symposium, including (but not limited to) the following topics:

  • How did the opening of other fronts, like the Middle East, Africa and the Arctic, affect the greater strategy of belligerents?
  • How did the use of maritime capability in the littoral regions around the world evolve and what important lessons could extend to modern understanding?
  • Beyond air-to-air combat, how did aircraft become strategic tools in gaining a tactical advantage for ground forces?
  • How did economic statecraft affect the belligerent before and during the war, and what new methods of economic statecraft emerged after the conflict and the Paris Peace Conference?

Applicants will also be asked to select an artifact from the Museum and Memorial’s collection, via the Online Collections Database, and write a 500-word essay on the importance of this object to the theme of the symposium.
 

Deadline:

Monday, June 30, 2025
5 p.m. Central Time (U.S.)

Notification of acceptance:

We will notify applicants of acceptance via email by Friday, Aug. 1, 2025 at 5 p.m.

If accepted:

Applicants will be asked to present in a virtual session on Thursday, Oct. 23 between 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Central Time (U.S.). Additionally, accepted artifact essays will be published on the Museum and Memorial’s website. 

 

The working language of the symposium and all submissions is English.