30th USIAS Fellows seminar: Soldiers out of control? An entangled history of accidents

Soldiers out of control? An entangled history of accidents in the French and German military, 1920-1970

By Anne Rasmussen, Birgit Metzger and Peter Itzen (joint USIAS-FRIAS Fellowship 2015)

With the recent multiplication of Western military interventions, accidents during operations have raised awareness for the military’s vulnerability also during non-combat events. This joint USIAS-FRIAS project studies accidents in the military in peacetime and wartime. The military is examined as an important social institution of the 20th century and a specific social sphere.

Focusing on France and Germany in the crucial period from 1920 to 1970, we ask whether the perspective of  "entangled history", focusing on dependencies, interferences, interdependencies, provides a better explanatory framework for risk assessment than, for example, classic perspectives such as the nation-state or an abstract vision.

The project takes a fresh look at accidents from a historical perspective, focusing on the 20th century instead of the better-explored 19th century. It examines a wide range of accidents, in an era which is seen as characterized by state expansion and attempts to ‘socially engineer’ society. It is in many ways the birthplace of modern risk assessment and regulation.

The projects offers an innovative view at the military as a social institution in both times of peace and war and allows the study of both national specificities and transnational processes in France and Germany. In a long-term perspective the project will help build an “accidentology” network, which bridges the disciplinary borders between pharmacy, medicine, social sciences and engineering in order to provide expertise for the social management of accidents and health risks.