Militaries and militarization: the turn to resilience

The project “The New Psychology of War” held an international conference at DIIS December 13-14, 2018, on “Militaries and Militarization: The Turn to Resilience.” The event was co-organized by Senior Researcher4 Robin May Schott and Professor Joanna Bourke, Birkbeck College, University of London (member of the project’s international advisory board).

The conference focused on the question, What happens when the concept of ‘resilience’ becomes militarized? Currently there is a shift taking place in the United States Army and other militaries in the understanding of personal responses to violence. Instead of understanding the impact of violence primarily in terms of trauma, there is a new interest in resilience or robustness. The implications of this military turn to resilience are potentially immense. The DIIS conference brought together international scholars from different disciplines to address these implications both for military institutions and in terms of broader social issues.

Keynote speakers included: Joanna Bourke (Birkbeck, University of London), Peter Leese (University of Copenhagen), Ruth Leys (John Hopkins University), Paul Higate (University of Bath), Alison Howell (Rutgers University).