Symposia

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

When President Woodrow Wilson led the United States into WWI to “make the world safe for democracy,” it marked an end of American isolationism and initiated an era of global democratization.

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.

• National WWI Museum and Memorial • Western Front Association • Modern War Institute at West Point • International Society for First World War Studies • WW1 Historical Association • International Relations Council

Join us this year in a digital summit to explore war and morality.

• What is a “just” war?

• What are the ethics of war (e.g. The Hague, Geneva Conventions)?

• Who is the most reliable judge of a war’s morality?

• Is it important to judge the morality of World War I?

• What standards has WWI set for contemporary war ethics?

• How have international norms changed? Is war a driver of international laws on armed conflict?

• What justifies a pre-emptive strike? What are the moral and ethical implications?

• How does a lack of “rules of engagement” contribute to war crimes and reinforce opposition/resistance?

Maartje Abbenhuis

Acclaimed historian with a focus on the history of war and neutrality and the role of small states in international relations. She is the author of several books and edited collections, including “The Art of Staying Neutral: The Netherlands in the First World War, 1914-1918”; “An Age of Neutrals: Great Power Politics 1815–1914,” winner of the Choice Outstanding Academic Title; “The Hague Conferences in International Politics 1898-1915”; (with Gordon Morrell) “The First Age of Industrial Globalisation: An International History 1815-1918.” Her latest book, co-authored with Prof. Ismee Tames, entitled “Global War, Global Catastrophe: Neutrals, Belligerents and the Transformation of the First World War” won the Norman Tomlinson Prize for Best Book on the First World War awarded by the World War One History Association.

Abbenhuis is the recipient of two Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Grants: one in 2004 for work on the borderlands of the Netherlands in the First World War and the other in 2014 for her Hague conferences project. In 2018, she spent a semester as a Residential Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies in Amsterdam. At present, she is working on a history of dum-dum bullets and industrial violence. Maartje’s research has contributed significantly to the understanding of how historical perspectives on neutrality can inform contemporary debates on war and peace.

Gearóid Barry

Historian specializing in modern European history, with a particular focus on the cultural and political legacies of World War I. He has been a Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Galway since 2005, where his research encompasses post-war pacifism, peace movements, and religious history, with an emphasis on France and its broader European connections.

Barry is the author of “The Disarmament of Hatred: Marc Sangnier, French Catholicism and the Legacy of the First World War, 1914-1945,” which explores the Christian Democratic peace movement in France and its transnational connections. This work earned the Peace History Society's Scott Bills Memorial Prize. He has also co-edited several volumes on the global impacts of WWI, including “Small Nations and Colonial Peripheries in World War One” and “The Global 1916: An Anti-Imperial Moment.”

In addition to his academic publications, Barry has contributed to 1914-1918-online: The International Encyclopedia of the First World War, and serves on the editorial board of Histoire, Europe et Relations Internationales. His current research investigates the cultural and physical reconstruction of northeast France after WWI, including its religious dimensions.

Jonathan Bratten

Captain in the Maine National Guard, currently serving as the Revolutionary War 250th Coordinator at the U.S. Army Center of Military History.

CPT Bratten earned his MA in History from the University of New Hampshire in 2011, studying early America in the Atlantic World. His book “To the Last Man: A National Guard Regiment in the Great War, 1917-1919” received the 2020 Distinguished Writing Award from the Army Historical Foundation. In 2021, CPT Bratten was appointed as the first scholar in residence at the U.S. Army Center for Military History, focusing on extensive research into the history of military engagements and the evolution of the National Guard. CPT Bratten’s passions for teaching and service are magnified in his research on the history of training and national military tradition.

Risa Brooks

The Allis Chalmers Professor of Political Science at Marquette University. She has been an adjunct scholar at West Point’s Modern War Institute (2017-2020) and is a non-resident senior associate in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Her research focuses on U.S. and global civil-military relations, political violence, and the military forces of the Middle East and North Africa.

She is the author of “Shaping Strategy: The Civil-Military Politics of Strategic Assessment” (Princeton University Press, 2008) and co-editor of “Creating Military Power: The Sources of Military Effectiveness” (Stanford University Press, 2007) and “Reconsidering American Civil-Military Relations: Politics, Society and Modern War” (Oxford University Press, forthcoming). Her work has appeared in academic journals such as International Security, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Security Studies.

Dr. Brooks’ scholarship and commentary have been featured in numerous public platforms, including Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, and War on the Rocks. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, and has held research positions at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.

Neta Crawford

The Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow at Balliol College. She is the co-director and co-founder of the Costs of War Project at Brown University. A distinguished scholar, Crawford's research centers on war, ethics, normative change and emotions in world politics.

Crawford is the author of “The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War: Charting the Rise and Fall of U.S. Military Emissions” (MIT Press, 2022); “Accountability for Killing: Moral Responsibility for Collateral Damage in America's Post-9/11 Wars” (2013); “Argument and Change in World Politics” (2002); and “Soviet Military Aircraft” (1987). She has contributed over two dozen peer-reviewed articles on issues related to war and peace and her opinion pieces have appeared in the Washington Post.

In 2023, Crawford was elected to both the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She previously received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the International Ethics section of the International Studies Association in 2018 and was a co-winner of the 2003 Jervis and Schroeder Award from the American Political Science. She is currently working on a new project titled “To Make Heaven Weep: Civilians and the American Way of War.”

Richard S. Faulkner

Distinguished military historian and author whose expertise lies in the study of military operations, leadership, and the human experience of war. He is a Professor of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, where he has taught for over two decades, shaping the minds of future military leaders. Faulkner's work delves deeply into the complexities of combat, soldiering, and the broader implications of military conflict, particularly focusing on the U.S. Army's role in the First and Second World Wars.

Faulkner is the author of the award-winning book “Pershing's Crusaders: The American Soldier in World War I,” which offers a nuanced examination of the experiences of American soldiers during the Great War, providing insight into their training, battlefield performance, and the challenges they faced both on and off the front lines. His earlier book, “The School of Hard Knocks: Combat Leadership in the American Expeditionary Forces,” also received critical acclaim for its analysis of leadership dynamics in the AEF. Faulkner's research sheds light on the often-overlooked personal experiences of ordinary soldiers and their commanders, revealing the tension between doctrine, leadership, and the chaotic nature of combat.

He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and holds a Ph.D. in history from Kansas State University. Faulkner's career as a scholar is enriched by his own military service, having served as an officer in the U.S. Army. His dual perspective as both a historian and a former military officer allows him to approach his subjects with unique insight, making his work particularly relevant to both academic and military audiences.

Nathan Finney

Army Strategist (FA59) currently serving as a special assistant to the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in the Commander’s Action Group. Finney earned a Ph.D. in History at Duke University in 2022 while also serving as a Goodpaster Scholar. His research focuses on national security decision-making, strategy, civil-military relations, military policy, mobilization, and war. He has a book under contract with Cornell University Press titled “Orchestrating Power: The American Associational State in the First World War” that is based on his dissertation. It explores the creation, structure, activities, and impact of a key institution in the mobilization of the United States for the First World War, and ultimately the nature of American governance during wartime.

Finney is the president of the Military Writers Guild, a managing editor at the British Journal for Military History, a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal for Military History, a senior mentor for the Project on International Peace and Security at the College of William & Mary, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a founder of three non-profits: the Military Writers Guild, the Strategy Bridge, and the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum. Finney was a Visiting Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and a former Non-Resident Fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point. He is the co-editor and author of the book “Redefining the Modern Military: The Intersection of Profession and Ethics,” and the editor and author of “On Strategy: A Primer.”