Soldiers out of control

With the recent multiplication of Western military interventions, accidents during operations have raised awareness for the military’s vulnerability by non-combat events. Our historical research project proposes to shed light on accidents in the military as a continuous yet variable problem. By looking at the military – in peacetime and wartime - as one of the most relevant social institutions of the 20th century we put the history of accidents into a wider perspective. This joint project FRIAS-USIAS will study a specific social sphere, in which all kinds of accidents take place: the military. Focusing on France and Germany in the crucial period from 1920 to 1970, we ask whether an entangled history provides a better explanatory framework for risk assessment than, for example, do the nation-state or an abstract vision.