CALL FOR PAPERS FOR A CASE STUDIES COLLECTION
“GREAT POWER POLITICS TOWARDS MIDDLE EUROPE, 1914–1945”
ABSTRACT : 300 words
Deadline : 15 February 2015
PAPERS : 4000–7000 words
Deadline: 15 May 2015
Contact: 1914mideu1945@gmail.com (Aliaksandr Piahanau and Andras Becker)
In the first half of the 20th century, Middle -or Central – Europe, repeatedly set the stage
for great power rivalry and conflict, as well as political, economic and cultural exchange.
With a touch of irony, contemporary Hungarian writer Lajos Grendel described the
region as a mere sum of small landlocked countries that could be occupied by foreign
armies from any direction. Indeed, during the Great War, the interwar period and World
War II, the area situated between Germany and Russia has become the target of covert
or direct expansion. Although with a fluctuating pattern and intensity, Middle Europe
seemed to carry important implications for the national and imperial objectives of great
powers in the period, that Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill were the first to call
“the Second Thirty Year War”. The context of great power meddling in Middle Europe in
the period 1914–1945 still offers numerous unresearched perspectives. The
consideration of the varying and often conflicting regional viewpoints about national
and political identity, frontier and territory had not only underpinned regional interstate
antagonisms, but at the same time provided a platform for great power interference.
We are inviting submissions to our edited volume on the subject of Great Power politics
in Middle Europe between 1914 and 1945. We are welcoming papers analysing the
policy of any given great power (the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Italy and
the USA) towards the region, either as a whole, or towards any individual country. The
timeframe of analysis is also broadly based; it can encompass the entire era, but could
similarly concentrate only on a shorter period (4–5 years). Investigations of specific
regional issues with international implication, such as the Anschluss, or the question of
the Polish Corridor, are also welcomed.
The idea of publishing a collection of articles on great power policy towards Middle
Europe emerged following discussions held at international conferences on the topic
(“Central Europe between France and Russia during the Interwar”, Paris, France,
November 2013 and Minsk, Belarus, October 2014, and the panel “Great Power Politics
towards Middle Europe” at the IV. International Congress of Belarusian Studies, Kaunas,
Lithuania, October 2014).
We are aiming to put a selection of articles together, which, as far as possible, equally
represent each Great Power. We plan to publish up to 20 papers from internationally
reputable scholars, as well as from young promising historians. A major publishing
house in the UK has already expressed its interest in the project, which should be
published by the end of 2015.
Please, send your abstract (no more than 300 words)
to 1914mideu1945@gmail.com by 15 February 2015.
The potential participants will be informed by 20 February 2015 whether their
papers have been accepted and be directed to submit their final written work by
The abstract should contain:
1) the title and subject of the paper (including its chronological timeframe)
2) the relevance of the paper to the theme ‘Great Powers policies towards Middle Europe in 1914–1945’
3) information about the primary sources used
An academic CV with a list of publications should also be attached 15 May 2015.
The papers should be written in English and be
approx. 4 000 – 7 000 words (without footnotes)
The final deadline for submitting papers is 15 May 2015
All documents should be sent to 1914mideu1945@gmail.com
Aliaksandr Piahanau,
PhD Candidate (Belarusian State
University), associate researcher
(University Paris VII – Denis Diderot)
http://bsu.academia.edu/AliaksandrPiahanau
+33 6 95 16 80 96
Andras Becker,
PhD., Visiting Research Fellow
(University of Southampton)
https://soton.academia.edu/AndrasBecker
+44 75 45494857
