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CFP INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE UNDEFENDED NEUTRALITY: THE CULTURE OF PEACE IN EUROPE DURING THE GREATWAR_ Venue: DEPARTMENT OF CONTEMPORARY HISTORY FACULTY OF GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF SEVILLE 26TH-27TH NOVEMBER 2014         CONFERENCE RATIONALE: In August 1914 the European powers were drawn into a conflict thatblurred frontiers all over the Old Continent and invalidated theinternational order under construction. Until then, the establishment oflaws of war had apparently demonstrated the European nations' commitmentto the modern ideals of progress and civilization. Actually, the twoHague Conferences (1899, 1907) had traced an unsuccessful path to asystem of regulative cooperation between states. However, despite thepeacekeeping failure, the rhetoric of peace -actively promoted bypre-war pacifism campaigns- forced warring states to justify publiclytheir entry into the conflict. Therefore, from the very onset, thequestion of war guilt assumed special emotional importance inbelligerent societies. So, the controversy around internationalresponsibilities had a momentous impact on the contemporary perceptionsof war, going far beyond the armistice. Particularly, Germany's role continues to be most controversial. Buteven so, major interpretations are still based on Fischer's claims thatBerlin's "grasp for world power" was the main reason for the Europeancatastrophe. Moreover, the pictures of "the Rape" of Belgian neutralitygave a depiction of the German assault on international rights andhumanitarian principles. So the aggression against neutrality set one ofthe primary stages for discussing issues of legal liability and moralculpability, with also significant developments in the field of warpropaganda. In general warfare demonstrated that categorical imperativeshad little to do with international realities, because laws turned outto be relative, flexible and adaptable depending on the political,economic and geostrategic interests at stake. The illusory safety thatrested upon the presumable inviolability of international laws waschallenged "_by the perpetration of all kind of acts in contravention ofevery written and unwritten law that stood in the way of belligerenttargets_". In such a view, for instance, the economics also had a deep impact oninitial belligerent actions towards neutrals. German _Mitteleuropa_ andthe British blockade were two main issues in political and diplomaticcorrespondence between belligerent and neutral powers. The latterchallenged the argument that the British went to war to safeguard therights of neutral and small nations. So the winners' narratives of warmight be reviewed from the neutral side as well. So what did neutralitymean in a war context where "_might was right_"? Overall, the integrityof neutral rights depended not only on the wishes and expectations ofwarring states but also "_on the actual means and skills to follow thebehaviour expected of a neutral state"_. On these bases, the neutrality remains an understudied topic bycomparison to those related to belligerent societies, which havetraditionally been the focus of the international scholarship.Generally, historians of the conflict have marginalized the role ofneutrals as much as the historians from neutral countries had failed tocare the role of total war. Within the centennial of the First WorldWar, the neutral question thus continues to be open to discussion.Nations and their people often viewed the conflict from differentperspectives. For instance, Spanish historiography of the war has beendominated by a national perspective focusing on the collapse in theRestaurationist system between 1917 and 1923. But this primary domesticapproach tends to neglect the consequences of total war within atransnational context. Actually, the place of Spanish neutrality in thegeneral map of the conflict is worthy of further consideration, wideningthe scope of the research from a comparative European perspective andcrossing perceptions and expectations of peace and war.  This international conference, open around neutrality in the generalframework of the First World War, will discuss the significance of totalwar for the European learning curve as well as for collectiveexpectations of integration in the XXth century. We invite and welcome papers proposals on the following lines andtopics: 1. NEUTRAL EXPERIENCES OF WAR IN A GLOBAL WORLD 2. THE FAILURE OF EUROPE. A CIVILIAN WAR? 3. INTELLECTUALS AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE   4. RELIGIOUS INTERNATIONALISM AND THE ROLE OF THE NATIONAL CHURCHES 5. PROPAGANDA ISSUES. WAGING A WAR OF WORDS AND IMAGES 6. SOCIAL AND CIVIC MOVEMENTS. THE MOBILIZATION FROM BELLOW  7. GENDER HISTORY 8. HISTORY OF EMOTIONS 9. EUROPE AND "THE THIRD OPTION". LAW AND CONFLICT The meeting will include papers given by invited speakers andpresentations submitted through a call for papers. PAPER SUBMISSION The paper submission will include the abstract and contact details. Wewould kindly ask to keep a limit of 350 words for the proposal. We alsoexpect a short academic cv from the applicants. ALL PROPOSALS FOR PAPERS SHOULD BE SUBMITTED TO:NEUTRALITYCONFERENCE@US.ES CONFERENCE LANGUAGES: ENGLISH, SPANISH. The evaluation of the submitted proposals will be ensured by theScientific Committee of the Conference. After notification of acceptance, a Conference fee in amount of EUR 80will have to be paid until 15th August 2014. The Organizing Committeewill announce the bank account to the selected participants in duecourse. TIMELINE 15TH MARCH 2014 – DISSEMINATION OF THE CALL OF PAPERS 15TH JUNE 2014 – PAPER SUBMISSION CLOSING 15TH JULY 2014 – NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE 15TH AUGUST 2014– REGISTRATION FORM AND PARTICIPATION FEE 26TH-27TH NOVEMBER 2014– INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE Dr. Rafael Sánchez Mantero (Universidad de Sevilla) Dr. Alfonso Botti (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia) Dr. Inmaculada Cordero Olivero (Universidad de Sevilla) Dr. Maximiliano Fuentes Codera (Universidad de Girona) Dr. Carolina García Sanz (EEHARoma-CSIC) Dr. José Antonio Montero Jiménez (Universidad Complutense Madrid) Dr. Ana Paula Pires (Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas -Universidade Nova de Lisboa) Dr. José-Leonardo Ruiz Sánchez (Universidad de Sevilla)