2014 Conference

World War I and Contemporary Policy on War and Peace

La Premiére Guerre Mondiale
et la politique contemporaine sur la guerre et la paix

Sept. 26 – 28, Barney Danson Theatre, Canadian War Museum
du 26 au 28 septembre, salle Barney Danson, Museé canadien de la Guerre

On the centenary of World War I this conference brings together historians and commentators from civil society, the diplomatic and military communities to reflect on how lessons from the “Great War” are relevant today to reduce the incidence of armed conflict and reinforce the foundations of a more stable, peaceful world.

À l’occasion du centenaire de la Première Guerre mondiale ce congrès rassemble historiens et commentateurs de la société civile et des collectivités diplomatiques et militaire pour étudier et analyser la « Grande Guerre » en vue de réduire les conflits armés à notre époque, ainsi que de renforcer les fondations de la paix et de la stabilité mondiales.

Presentations

•  Welcome and introduction – audio recording (MP3 format)
• Keynote: Desmond Morton – The Great War 1914 – 1919 : The Political Consequences for Canada
  Desmond Morton Keynote – speaking notes
  audio recording (MP3 format)
• Panel 1 – Efforts to Stop the War: Was WW1 Unavoidable?
  Audio recording (MP3 format)
  Regehr – Lessons from contemporary armed conflict (PowerPoint presentation)
• Panel 2 – Innovations in War; Could the proliferation of new lethal weapons of mass destruction have been prevented?
  Audio recording (MP3 format)
  Sarty – Dashed Dreams of Decisive War (PowerPoint presentation)
  Vachon – WWI and Chemical Weapons – Before and After (PowerPoint presentation)
• Keynote: R.H. Thompson – Remembering WW1
  Audio recording (MP3 format)
  Thompson – The World Remembers (PowerPoint presentation)
• Panel 3 – Civil Society and WW1: How was the war fought (or resisted) on the home front?
  Audio Recording (MP3 format)
  Vuic – American Women and World War I (PowerPoint presentation)
• Keynote: Ian MacKay – Paradoxes of Vimy Ridge
  Audio recording (MP3 format)
• Panel 4 – Memory and War: Was truth the first casualty of WW1 and must it always be thus?
  Audio Recording (MP3 format)
  Basen – Memory and War (PowerPoint presentation)
• Panel 5 – Failure of the Peace: Why Could WW1 not be ended sooner?
  Audio Recording (MP3 format)
•  Concluding Forum – What can we learn from WW1 to make the 21st century a century of Peace?
  Audio recording (MP3 format)

Selected Background Materials

• What remains unlearned from the First World War  – article by Roy Culpeper, Embassy Magazine, Aug. 26, 2014
• First World War Legacy – article by Gwynne Dyer, Embassy Magazine Aug. 8, 2014
• Apocalypse World War One – TV Ontario series on WWI, August, 2014
• The World Remembers – WWI memorial project produced by R.H. Thomson
• Why Canadian Media Embraced Censorship During WWI – article by Ira Basen, CBC, Aug. 1, 2014
• Warrior Nation – book by Ian McKay and Jamie Swift, 2012
• “The Rhyme of History” – interview with Margaret MacMillan, Brookings, Dec. 14, 2013
• From out of the trenches, Canada comes of age – Gwynne Dyer , National Post Aug 8, 2014 Excerpted from Canada in the Great Power Game 1914-2014 by Gwynne Dyer. Copyright (c) 2014 Gwynne Dyer
• Architects and Sleepwalkers – International Peace Institute film created to accompany high-level forum August 2014 examining lessons learned from 1814 and 1914.
•  

  Conference speaker R.H. Thompson spoke on the World Remembers project:

  
  1914  –  CENTENNIAL  – 1918
  THE WORLD REMEMBERS 
  A project of Remembrance and Reconciliation.
  In 2014 starting October 20^th until November 11^th, the 292,207 names of those killed in 1914 from Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, Belgium, Turkey, the British Indian Army, Ireland and the Czech Republic will be displayed. The names display commences each evening at 8.30 and pauses at dawn the following day.
  In each of the WWI Centenary years, the names of those killed will be witnessed in the 100^th year after their deaths.
  To view the 2014 names display go to http://www.theworldremembers.org/view-the-names 
  For more information about the project or to find exact night, hour and minute that any name will appear go to www.theworldremembers.ca
  Memory is part of what makes us human.