The Student Press in Europe, 1800–1940: History and Uses of a Multifaceted Source

Student newspapers and magazines are widely used by scholars as historical sources, but have rarely been studied as a historical objects in their own right. Reflecting upon the national and geographical contexts of their production, this article underlines the important thematic and stylistic differences between these student-authored texts in selected European countries from the early nineteenth century to the eve of the Second World War. These materials can play an important, if not straightforward role in the historiography of student lives. The article argues that a reflexive confrontation by scholars with student publications is necessary, including reflections on their digitisation and on ways of writing new histories of students.

Last Famine in Lithuania (Vilnius 1917): A Measurement and Explanation

Retrospectively applying Howe-Devereux famine intensity and magnitude scales to data on the food crisis in Vilnius under German occupation during World War I, we find that it suffered a famine in 1917 caused by the collateral effect of overly rigid epidemic prevention policies. German occupiers imposed a permanent quarantine, making food transportation across the delimitations of 32 quarantine zones illegal. Despite these restrictions, in early 1917, a typhus epidemic broke out. Further tightening of cross-zone mobility restrictions destroyed the illegal food trade, making food inaccessible in Vilnius, while it was available in Lithuania despite the failure of crops in 1916.

The War People: A Social History of Common Soldiers During the Era of the Thirty Years War by Lucian Staiano-Daniels, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2024, xviii + 228 pp., £85 (hardback), ISBN 9781009428408

A Thirst for Wine and War: The Intoxication of French Soldiers on the Western Front by Adam D. Zientek, Montreal, McGill-Queens University Press, 2024, 288 pp., CA$110 (hardcover), ISBN 9780228019923, CA$42.95 (softcover), ISBN 9780228019930

Ethical and methodological insights: an interdisciplinary study of letters written by Jews interned in the Drancy camp during the Second World War

This article examines the methodological and ethical challenges raised by an interdisciplinary study that investigates the functions of correspondence in contexts of wartime isolation, using as its paradigm the letters written by individuals interned as Jews in the Drancy camp during the Second World War, within the context of the Shoah. Bringing together psychology and contemporary history, the project seeks to illuminate the complex human issues related to a major historical and socio-political event – the Second World War. The article outlines a multi-stage qualitative methodology combining different levels of analysis. It demonstrates how engagement with such historically and emotionally charged archives requires a revision of conventional research and theoretical frameworks. Interdisciplinary dialogue is presented as a safeguard against over-interpretation and anachronistic readings. Finally, the article addresses the ethical tensions inherent in analysing intimate Shoah-related documents, underscoring the need for reflexivity, and the collective processing of emotional responses.

Medication adherence in conflict settings: A global public health perspective

Armed conflicts have a catastrophic impact on medication adherence among populations needing long-term treatment for chronic diseases, severely disrupting healthcare systems. In addition to humanitarian catastrophe, the devastation of healthcare is becoming more widely acknowledged as a tactical weapon of war, making adherence nearly impossible. This commentary focuses on three key dimensions ; the humanitarian effects of preventing people from accessing necessary medications, like insulin, dialysis, and chemotherapy; the weaponization of healthcare by launching targeted attacks on hospitals and supply chains in places like Gaza and Syria; and the pressing need for systemic policy responses to safeguard civilian health. As a humanitarian duty and a legal need, we contend that protecting medication adherence in war areas should be given priority. The key to reducing suffering is safeguarding medical facilities and staff, including the management of chronic illnesses within humanitarian efforts, and guaranteeing continuous access to necessary medications. In the end, the commentary makes the case that blocking access to medications ought to be acknowledged as a human rights violation as well as a calculated military strategy that calls for international responsibility.

Resilient partnership? EU perception and expectation from China

The current decade has witnessed not only a series of crises weakening the post-world war neo-liberal world order built by the West, but also the continuous rising power of emerging countries, especially China. Supported by substantial first-hand empirical data, this research assesses how perceptions of the EU in China as well as expectations from China are affected after a series of crises, including the most recent ones, namely Brexit, COVID-19 pandemic and Russia–Ukraine war. It traces how China’s narrative of the relationship and relative power balance between the EU and China has evolved from 2020 to 2023, a period of turbulence testing the resilience of the EU. This analysis of traditional media as well as elite attitude provides the most up-to-date evidence of an increasingly confident China seeking a resilient partnership with the EU.

Narrowing the ‘expectations deficit’? Evolving Japanese expectations of the EU as an Indo-Pacific security actor (2020–2022)

Traditional studies on EU–Japan relations often argued that there was a salient ‘expectations deficit’ between the two actors as they held low expectations toward each other due to their divergent interests and perceptions, especially in the realm of hard security. This has changed significantly in the 2020s. Based on content and discourse analyses of Japanese print media, official documents, and expert interviews during 2020–2022, this article finds that under the influence of a turbulent global environment caused by the intensifying US–China strategic competition, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russia–Ukraine War, Japan has narrowed its expectations deficit regarding the EU, and encouraged closer bilateral security cooperation in multiple domains, such as defence, maritime security, and cyber security. We identify and analyze eight sets of findings which support this claim. From the Japanese view, the EU is a like-minded partner of Japan with shared values, common identities, and increasingly similar threat perceptions in the current volatile age. These growing expectations from Japan have facilitated the convergence of the EU and Japan’s security policies, which is evident in their respective ‘Indo-Pacific’ strategies.

Renewal in time of global disruption: Asia’s expectations of the EU

Since the sudden end of the Cold War, the need for studies of ideational factors like norms and perceptions has grown stronger. Meanwhile, the European Union as a new type of international actor has launched its Common and Foreign Security Policy, creating new needs to understand norm diffusion and perception shaping of such a non-state actor. How to choose a representative sample and to generate reliable data could be challenging, owing not only to the fact that ideational factors often seem too intangible when compared to the material factors like the size or military power of a country, but also because norms, perceptions and identity are not static. This introductory article introduces the background, research method and key findings that underpin the multinational project ‘Renewal in Time of Global Disruption: Asia’s Expectations of the EU’, which is showcased in this special issue. It is designed to provide up-to-date perceptions of, and expectations towards the EU, found in Asia. The transparent explanation of research methods in this paper not only underscores the reliability of the empirical data but also facilitates how further studies by other researchers can be conducted.

U.S. engagement with Catalan nationalism in the aftermath of World War I

Historiography has assumed that the United States did not pay attention to the Catalan nationalist movement and its demands for self-government at the end of the First World War. The article, on the contrary, demonstrates, using diplomatic documentation from the American embassy in Madrid and the American mission at the Paris Peace Conference, that the Americans had good knowledge of the campaign for autonomy that took place in Catalonia in the fall of 1918 and the winter of 1919. And, likewise, that two trends coexisted within American diplomacy: one favourable to getting involved in Spanish domestic politics to carry out a reform of the monarchy or even promote a republic and guarantee autonomy to Catalonia and other regions, and another in favour of staying on the sidelines. The article opens a field for deeper inquiry into the knowledge and interest of Wilsonian diplomacy in stateless nationalisms.