In 2014, the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War, SEESOX arranged a symposium at St Antony’s putting the spotlight on South East Europe, the region in which the initial spark of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand ignited the War. Our focus was on the dramatic regional transformation brought about by the War and the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, how this irrevocably altered the region and shaped the rest of its 20th century history (and beyond), and on the lasting legacies of those events, and the very different ways in which they are remembered and framed in the various countries of the region. In 2016, the three convenors (Othon Anastasakis, David Madden and Elizabeth Roberts) co-edited a book which was a volume in its own right, not just the record of the symposium; and it seems fitting to revisit symposium, book and legacies in November 2018, the hundredth anniversary of the ending of the War.

On the anniversary of the end of the Great War, the panel will discuss how it is remembered in South East Europe, and why it still evokes such strong emotions and reactions, a century after it ended. The legacies live on.

Join us after the talk for drinks and canapes.