Visualising War and Peace

In this episode, Alice and Nicolas interview the editors of Ancient Warfare Magazine - Jasper Oorthuys and Murray Dahm. Founded in 2007, Ancient Warfare examines the military history of many different ancient cultures in Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa and Asia, with a particular focus on Greece and Rome from around 1200BC to 600AD. It has thousands of readers all around the world – and thousands tune in to the Ancient Warfare podcast. We ask Jasper and Murray what their readers are looking for and what goes into the creation of each issue. That gets us chatting about the enduring appeal of ancient military history, the challenges of reconstructing what ancient warfare was really like, and what we gain from learning about and trying to visualise ancient warfare.

Among other questions, we asked:

• Does Ancient Warfare Magazine foreground some aspects of war more than others? What aspects does it cover less often, and why?
• How do the editors balance readers' expectations and habits of visualising ancient warfare with what their authors want to communicate and new advances in research?
• What role do illustrations play alongside textual descriptions in bringing ancient warfare to life for modern readers? And how much creative interpretation goes into the magazine's artistic reconstructions of ancient warfare?
• What factors influence modern reconstructions or visualisations of ancient warfare?
• What challenges and responsibilities does the magazine industry/popular press have to think about when representing ancient warfare in the 21st century?

We hope you enjoy the episode!

For a version of our podcast with close captions, please use this link. If you want to find out more about Ancient Warfare Magazine, you can look up their latest issues here and listen to their podcast here.

For more information about individuals and their projects, access to resources and more, please have a look on the University of St Andrews Visualising War website.  

Music composed by Jonathan Young
 Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin 

In this episode, Alice interviews artist Jill Calder, author James Robertson and illustrator/book designer Jim Hutcheson, who is Creative Director at the Scottish publishing company Birlinn Books.  One summer, Jim was exploring the wares in a small bookshop in Spain when he came across an illustrated history of the life of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, a Castilian knight also known as ‘El Cid’ or ‘El Campeador’. That got him thinking about the representation of other medieval warriors in literature, especially in children’s books, and inspired him to commission Jill and James to create a new illustrated history of Robert the Bruce, published in 2014. 

Robert the Bruce is famous for many reasons, but particularly for leading the First War of Scottish Independence; so Jill, James and Jim quickly began wrestling with how to represent war and violence in art and text, with a young readership in mind. In the podcast, we discuss the decisions they took about how to represent iconic battles and acts of cruelty that today might count as war crimes. We talk about the layers that art can add to text, and vice versa; their memories of begin fascinated as well as horrified by the war stories they came across as children; how young readers can blur but also distinguish between fact and fiction; and the role that historical war stories can play in prompting young people to ask important questions about modern conflicts and war in general. 

Among other questions, Alice asked:

• How has the representation of war in children’s books changed over time?
• When telling the story of Robert the Bruce, which aspects of battle and war did Jill, James and Jim particularly want to highlight?
• Were there some aspects of war/violence which they opted not to represent?
• How have children responded to the book's depiction of medieval warfare?
• What responsibilities do children's publishers, authors and illustrators have when depicting war for young people in the 21st century?
• How might the representation of war in children's literature change over the next few decades?

We hope you enjoy the episode!

For a version of our podcast with close captions, please use this link. If you want to find out more about our conversation, you can read these two blogs here and here.

For more information about individuals and their projects, access to resources and more, please have a look on the University of St Andrews Visualising War website.  

Music composed by Jonathan Young
 Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin 

In this episode, Alice and Nicolas interview Prof. Kate McLoughlin. A Professor of English at Oxford University and Tutorial Fellow at Harris Manchester College, Kate works on the representation of war in literature in many different genres, from the ancient world to the present day. Among other books, she is the author of Martha Gellhorn: The War Writer in the Field and in the Text, which explores Gellhorn's fictional writing alongside her journalism. She also wrote Authoring War: The Literary Representation of War from the Iliad to Iraq; and, most recently, Veteran Poetics: British Literature in the Age of Mass Warfare, 1790-2015. She is currently working on a literary history of silence, partly inspired by her research into veteran experiences and their representation.

In Authoring War, Kate argues that ‘war, as a subject, is the greatest test of a writer’s skills of evocation’ - so in the podcast we talk about some of the challenges involved in representing war in writing: for example, how authors convey a structured sense of time as events unfold, how they conjure the physical dimensions of a war zone and spatial awareness, and how they describe the indescribable. Kate explains the term 'combat gnosticism' - the idea that authors must know what they are talking about, either through going to war themselves or seeing it close up - and how that has traditionally marginalised women writers on war. She also talks about the expectations which readers have of war stories (that they will be vivid, full of action and emotion, etc) and what happens when authors or narrators do not meet those expectations - for example, the veteran who prefers not to speak of his/her experiences. As the conversation goes on, we discuss the ways in which war stories from the past not only influence later representations of war but also how people actually experience conflict in real time - which then feeds back into a network of established war stories, making it difficult to distinguish representation from reality. 

Among other questions, we asked Kate: 

• What does the study of war writing bring to wider studies of war and conflict? 
• How do age-old war stories continue to influence war writing and the experience of war today? 
• What challenges do war writers face when trying to convey the complexities of war?  
• What do readers/audiences tend to expect of war writing, and why? 
• Have some genres of war writing been more dominated by male or female voices, and has that changed over time? 
• What groups of people or conflict experiences have often been marginalised by traditions of war writing? 
• How has the literary representation of veterans changed over time? 
• What can the study of silence bring to our understanding and appreciation of war stories?  

We hope you enjoy the episode!

For a version of our podcast with close captions, please use this link. You can find out more about Kate's research here.

For more information about individuals and their projects, access to resources and more, please have a look on the University of St Andrews Visualising War website.  

Music composed by Jonathan Young
 Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin 

What are the cultural legacies of visualising war through wargames?  Wargames are not a new phenomenon; in military exercises, as tactical plays tested on maps and as entertainment spectacles, wargames have been with us from ancient times. Studying wargames allows us to better understand the fog of war, as well as giving us nuanced insights into the processes by which military strategy is visualised and drilled into the martial and civilian body. How do we game war? And what does the history of wargaming tell us about its use today?

Aggie Hirst, Senior Lecturer, Department of War Studies, King’s College London

Dr Aggie Hirst’s work focuses on international political theory and critical military studies. She is currently Principal Investigator on a Leverhulme Trust and British Academy funded research project exploring the US military’s use of wargames and simulations. 

Alice König, Senior Lecturer and co-lead of the ‘Visualising War’-project, University of St Andrews

Dr Alice König’s research is centred on intertextuality and socio-literary interactions, attitudes to and the transmission of expertise, science, and war. Currently, her focus is on the Visualising War Project, exploring how war narratives interact and form throughout history. Find Alice @KonigAlice

Aristidis A. Foley, PhD Candidate, School of International Relations, University of St Andrews

Aris Foley’s research combines political and critical theories with dystopian literature, exploring the notion of Critical Dystopianism. He is an avid painter of wargame models, a hobby which has engaged him for 18 years. Find Aris @ares_miniatures

Katarina H.S. Birkedal, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Classics, University of St Andrews

Dr Katarina Birkedal’s work focuses on the politics of storytelling. Her research centres an embrace of interdisciplinarity and multiplicity, of voices and approaches. She is currently working on bridging disciplinary silos to further our understanding of war stories and their social and cultural impact. Find Katarina @Kat_in_a_Birch

As the second in a two-part special, this episode will delve into the cultural impact of wargames in history and shed light on their contemporary influence in discourses on war and strategy.

For more information check out the Visualising Strategy blog.

To find out more about our research programme, please visit the University of St Andrews Visualising War project website.


Co-produced by Katarina Birkedal and Sneha Reddy
Music composed by Jonathan Young
Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin 

How do crisis simulations help us understand strategy and decision-making processes?  Crisis simulation exercises can take many forms, from complex live wargame events to on-screen and multi-week crisis scenarios. What is the role and utility of crisis simulations in the understanding, teaching, and making of strategy? Can wargames be used as a predictive tool, or should their utility be centred around training purposes? How are wargames and simulations adapting to an increasingly online workspace? 

James Fielder, Founder, Liminal Operations and Adjunct Professor, Colorado State University

Dr James "Pigeon" Fielder teaches political science at Colorado State University, where he researches emergent political processes through tabletop, live-action, and digital gaming. He founded the corporate wargame consultancy Liminal Operations and writes for Evil Beagle Games. Find Pigeon at @j_d_fielder

Paul Vebber, Assistant Director, Wargaming and Future Warfare Research, US Navy

Paul Vebber is a lifelong hobby wargamer and co-founder of Matrix Games. He currently works for the US Navy as a civilian focused on wargaming in support of technology development and associated employment concepts.

Yuna Huh Wong, Defense Analyst, Institute for Defense Analyses

Dr Yuna Huh Wong is a defense analyst at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) and adjunct professor at Georgetown University. At IDA she is currently involved in cyber wargames; as well as tabletop exercises and studies to support the Joint Staff. Find Yuna @YunaHuhWong

Felipe Cruvinel, PhD Candidate, School of International Relations, University of St Andrews

Felipe Cruvinel is a PhD candidate at St Andrews, currently writing a thesis on applying data analysis to counterinsurgency in Afghanistan. He designs and produces wargames and simulations for the school and undertakes tabletop design and hobby gaming in his own time. Find Felipe @FCruvi 

As the first in a two-part special, this episode will provide a peek into the contemporary world of crisis simulations and wargames and the intriguing processes, inspiration, and decisions that underlie their creation and production.


For more information check out the Visualising Strategy blog.

To find out more about our research programme, please visit the University of St Andrews Visualising War website. 

Co-produced by Katarina Birkedal and Sneha Reddy
Music composed by Jonathan Young
Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin

In this week's episode, Alice and Nicolas interview librettist Susan Werbe and composer Kirsten Volness about musical representations of war. In particular, Susan and Kirsten discuss the opera they created with colleague Kate Holland, Letters That You Will Not Get: Women's Voices from the Great War. As Susan explains, most representations of WW1 have been white, male and Eurocentric - but this was a global conflict which impacted many different people in many different ways. Letters uses the words of real women to create archetypes that represent women’s war experiences from countries on both sides of the conflict, diverse ethnicities and social classes, and quite different views on the war. It features mothers, daughters, wives, lovers, friends and sisters; women full of pride and hope, and women full of anger and fear; nurses and munitions workers; women who could do nothing but bear witness to the war; and women who fought other battles along the way, against the racists policies and ongoing discrimination faced by Black Americans.

In the podcast, Susan discusses traditional habits of visualising the First World War and how recent research and commemorations have contributed new angles and stories. Kirsten explains some of the musical influences behind the songs she wrote and we talk about the power of music to add layers of meaning and emotional impact, deepening our understanding of individual and collective experiences of conflict. We listen to some extracts from the opera, and Susan and Kirsten explain how the different songs come together to ask big questions about war, its causes and consequences. The First World War is a story many of us are familiar with, but Letters That You Will Not Get invites us to look at it with new eyes, from a range of viewpoints, and in the process it prompts us to consider how we look at, imagine and narrate other wars.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

For a version of our podcast with close captions, please use this link. You can read more about Letters That You Will Not Get in a blog by Susan Werbe on our project website and you can listen to other extracts from the opera here.

For more information about individuals and their projects, access to resources and more, please have a look on the University of St Andrews Visualising War website. 

Music composed by Jonathan Young
   Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin

In this week's episode, Alice and Nicolas interview actor and playwright Jonathan Guy Lewis. Jonny joined the army on leaving university, but illness halted his training and after months in hospital he changed direction and embarked on an acting career. His military experiences came in handy when he was cast as Sgt Chris McCleod in the TV series Soldier Soldier, but they have also informed his writing and his work as Artistic Director of the Soldier's Arts Academy.

In the podcast, Jonny talks particularly about his award-winning play Our Boys, which is set in a military hospital and explores the experiences of a group of injured soldiers as they wrestle with PTSD, among other challenges. He also explains what prompted him to write his more recent play Soldier On, which again looks at PTSD and the challenges faced by veterans and their families as they navigate the complex transition from military to civilian life. As Jonny has said in the past, 'Soldier On is dedicated to all those who come home after war, but don’t really come back. And to all their loved ones and friends who know what it’s like to live with the thousand yard stare.' He is a firm advocate for the power of storytelling in the healing process, so we discuss that - and we also talk about the work of the Soldier's Arts Academy, which gives soldiers, veterans and the wider military community opportunities to get involved in the creative and performing arts, either as part of recovery or to help them develop new skills. 

Among other questions, we asked Jonny:

• What was he trying to communicate with his play Our Boys about war and soldiering? 
• What aspects of war and soldiering was he particularly keen to highlight in his play Soldier On?
• How can theatre help explain PTSD and other challenges that soldiers/veterans face to a wider public?
• What role can storytelling - and especially drama and acting - play in helping people process trauma themselves?
• What role do historic stories and archetypes play in helping society wrestle with the ethics and impacts of war?

We hope you enjoy the episode!

For a version of our podcast with close captions, please use this link.  For more information about individuals and their projects, access to resources and more, please have a look on the University of St Andrews Visualising War website. 

Music composed by Jonathan Young
 Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin

In this week's episode, Alice and Nicolas interview Harry Parker, an artist, former army officer, and author of Anatomy of a Soldier - a creative and powerful novel that narrates the experiences of fictional soldier Tom Barnes as he deploys to war and gets badly injured by an IED. Harry was himself injured by an IED while on tour in Afghanistan, losing both legs, and in many ways the novel draws on his personal experiences. But as Harry explains, it is also a highly fictionalised account and he takes advantage of that fictional element to look at war from many different perspectives. 

Each of the 45 chapters in the novel is narrated by an inanimate object - a tourniquet, a bag of fertiliser, a boot, a flag, a running blade, and so on - and these objects enable Harry to dissect war from all sorts of angles, bringing in the experience of civilians as well as soldiers, family members as well as fighters, and people on both sides of the conflict. As he explains in the podcast, he is fascinated by the fact that no one experiences conflict in the same way. The novel's structure and form also enable Harry to highlight connections between people who are fighting each other, and this reflects his wider interest in countering the more one-sided or biased representations of conflict which we often come across. Although the novel does move forward in time, from Tom Barnes' injury in the first chapter to his recovery and reintegration into civilian life at the end, it also jumps back and forth, capturing how fractured people's experiences of war are - and this got us talking about writing itself and the novel as a narrative form that can be used in innovative ways to help people visualise war. 

Among other questions, we asked Harry:

• How does writing compare with, e.g., painting as a narrative medium when it comes to representing war?
• To what extent does Anatomy of a Soldier reflect his own experiences of war and injury, and why did he decide to write fiction rather than autobiography?
• Why did he decide to narrate the story through a series of inanimate objects and not a human character?
• How does the novel's rapid changes of perspectives and jumping backwards-and-forwards in time contribute to its depiction of war?
• What does he want the novel to communicate to readers about soldiering, combat and war?

We hope you enjoy the episode!

For a version of our podcast with close captions, please use this link. You can find out more about Harry's writing and artwork by visiting his website. 

For more information about individuals and their projects, access to resources and more, please have a look on the University of St Andrews Visualising War website. 

Music composed by Jonathan Young
 Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin

In this week's episode, Alice and Nicolas interview dancer and choreographer Rosie Kay. Rosie began dancing at the age of three, founding the Rosie Kay Dance Company in 2004. With multiple award winning shows to her name, Rosie suffered a serious knee injury in 2006,  and this got her thinking about other jobs which involve bodily risk. She ended up embedding with an infantry battalion to research the risks that soldiers take, and this led to her development of the dance show 5 Soldiers: the Body is the Frontline, which has since toured the UK to critical acclaim. 

5 Soldiers is an incredible piece of physical theatre which captures the experiences of one woman and four men as they train, prepare for war and eventually deploy to Afghanistan. It gives audiences a glimpse of modern military culture, of how women fare in the army, and of what it is like to be at war, both mentally and physically. Focused on bodily experiences in particular, it visualises war in really powerful and thought-provoking ways, so we were excited to ask Rosie how it came about, what she was trying to communicate with it, and how it has impacted on audience's perceptions of soldiering and warfare.  

Among other questions, we asked Rosie:

• What can dance as a form of storytelling bring to representations of war?
• How did her experience of embedding with an infantry battalion shape her understanding of soldiering and combat, and how did it influence the way she decided to represent war on stage?
• Why did she decide to focus attention on the human body, as the frontline of military conflict?
• What did she want to communicate to audiences about the emotional side of soldiering?
• What does 5 Soldiers reveal about gender dynamics in the military?
• How have audiences reacted, and how might watching 5 Soldiers influence people's habits of visualising war? 

We hope you enjoy the episode!

For a version of our podcast with close captions, please use this link. You can find out more about 5 Soldiers, an expanded version of the show called 10 Soldiers, and the Rosie Kay Dance Company on their website. A recorded performance of 5 Soldiers can be viewed here.

For more information about individuals and their projects, access to resources and more, please have a look on the University of St Andrews Visualising War website. 

Music composed by Jonathan Young
 Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin

In this week's episode, Alice and Nicolas interview Dr Mike Martin, author of An Intimate War: an Oral History of the Helmand Conflict, 1978-2012 and Why We Fight.  Mike is a former British Army officer who was deployed to Afghanistan multiple times. A fluent Pashto speaker, Mike's role involved researching local culture and history to help inform military operations in the region. He is proud of the work he did, which undoubtedly saved Afghan and British lives; but his research ended up bringing him into conflict with the Army because it exposed the significant gaps between the stories which Western powers were telling about the war and the much more complex realities on the ground. 

In the podcast, Mike discusses what can happen when habits of describing and understanding a conflict are at odds with how the conflict is actually playing out. As he explains, a mismatch between narrative and reality not only leads to mistakes and missed opportunities: different players can leverage the stories that others keep telling to finance, expand and drive more conflict. Mike also talks about the role that storytelling plays at a much more basic level, to frame and justify the reasons we go to war in the first place - and we consider what role more inclusive storytelling might play in future in preventing or mitigating conflict.  

Among other questions, we asked Mike:

• What difference can research into local culture and history make to military operations?
• How did Western/official narratives of the war in Afghanistan compare with the conflict/conflicts that were actually taking place on the ground?
• In what ways can official/external habits of understanding or describing a conflict end up shaping the course that the conflict ultimately takes?
• What role do war stories play in driving humans to fight, or in justifying their decisions to go to war?
• What social narratives do we need to foster and tell to reduce the drivers of conflict in the 21st century?

We hope you enjoy the episode!

For a version of our podcast with close captions, please use this link. You can find out more about Mike's research and publications on his website, and his books can be purchased from all good booksellers! For a 25% discount on Why We Fight, go to Hurst Publishers and use the code WARFIGHT25.

For more information about individuals and their projects, access to resources and more, please have a look on the University of St Andrews Visualising War website. 

Music composed by Jonathan Young
 Sound mixing by Zofia Guertin