Abstract
Dramatic changes in attitudes towards warfare occurred in much of the West after the First World War, but these were caused by wider factors than the war itself. These included the spread of education, the development of the media and the reduction in the size of families. Subsequently reporting on wars has changed from lauding the heroes and the successful generals to lamenting the deaths and destruction. Each development in communications technology and particularly television has made the suffering more visible to an ever wider public while any differentiation there was in past wars between civilians and soldiers has often been removed by technical and political changes. Given the spread of knowledge about the effects of warfare the most popular nations world-wide are those that appear peaceful and constructive.
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Notes
- 1.
Jay Winter, Editor, The Legacy of the Great War: Ninety Years on, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, 2009, pp. 74 and 84.
- 2.
David Coleman and John Salt, Patterns, Trends, and Processes, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992, p. 24. See also the provocative Hans Zinsser, Rats, Lice and History, Bantam, New York, 1965. pp. 111–122.
- 3.
‘Suicide lead cause of international deaths’, Los Angeles Times, 4 October 2002.
- 4.
For the opposite point of view see Pat Jalland, Death in War and Peace: Loss and Grief in England, 1914–1970, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010, chapter 3.
- 5.
Kate Adie, ‘The media portrayal of the military’ in Stephen Badsey, Editor, The Media and International Security, Frank Cass, London, 2000, pp. 51–63.
- 6.
Archibald Forbes et al., Battles of the Nineteenth Century, Cassel, London, 1901, Volume 1, pp. 54–70.
- 7.
Elizabeth Grey, The Noise of Drums and Trumpets: W. H. Russell’s Reports from Crimea, Longmans, London, 1971, pp. 115, 116, 128, 131 and 139.
- 8.
Forbes, Battles, Volume 11, p. 98.
- 9.
Edward Dicey, The Schleswig-Holstein War, Tinsley Brothers, London, 1864, Volume 1, p. 264. See also Dicey’s comments on the later war in Edward Dicey, The Battle-Fields of 1866, Tinsley Brothers, London, 1866, pp. 132–133.
- 10.
G. B. Beak, The Aftermath of War: An Account of the Repatriation of Boers and Natives in the Orange River Colony 1902–1904, Edward Arnold, London, 1906.
- 11.
General Count Philippe de Ségur, History of the Expedition to Russia, 1812, Stroud, 2005, Volume 1, p. 92.
- 12.
‘Locksley Hall’ and ‘Locksley Hall Sixty Years After’ in The Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Macmillan, London, 1893, pp. 101 and 564.
- 13.
Philip Towle, ‘The media, megaphone diplomacy and disarmament’ in Badsey, Media and International Security, pp. 227–236.
- 14.
For discussion of the relationship between journalists and the military see Peter Young and Peter Jesser, The Media and the Military, Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1977; Michael Herr, Dispatches, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1977, pp. 189–195; Max Hastings, Going to the Wars, Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2000, pp. xi–xvi.
- 15.
They may indeed strongly oppose the particular wars in which they are involved see Hugh Tinker, A Message from the Falklands, Junction Books, London, 1982.
- 16.
Madeleine Albright, Madam Secretary: A Memoir, Macmillan, London, 2003, p. 417.
- 17.
‘The Ceasefire unravels’, The Economist, 24 September 2016, p. 51.
- 18.
See the eulogy of ‘our great national hero’ by Robert Southey, Life of Nelson, first published 1813, new edition Hutchinson, London, 1905, preface.
- 19.
‘Adolf Hitler: What did he have to do with the War?’ Daily Telegraph, 9 October 2017.
- 20.
Southey, Nelson, p. 338. For a modern assessment see Roger Knight, The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson, Penguin, London, 2005, p. 558.
- 21.
Daniel Pipes, Conspiracy, Free Press, New York, 1999; David Ray Griffin, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, Arris Books, Moreton-in-Marsh, 2005; Vian Bakir and David M. Barlow Editors, Communication in the Age of Suspicion: Trust and the Media, Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2007. ‘They lied about May Lai. And I tell you they lied about bin Laden’, Sunday Times, 24 April, 2016.
- 22.
BBC World Service Poll by GlobeScan, ‘Presentation of Results on Ratings of Different Countries’, 4 July 2014, compiled by Gallup Pakistan.
- 23.
‘China seen overtaking US as global superpower’, Pew Research Center, 13 July 2011.
- 24.
‘Views of a Changing World 2003’, Pew Research Center, 3 June 2003, p. 3.
- 25.
‘America’s image further erodes; Europe wants weaker ties’, Pew Research Center, 18 March 2003, p. 4.
- 26.
‘America’s image further erodes, Europe wants weaker ties’, Pew Research Center, 18 March 2003.
- 27.
‘From hyperpower to declining power’, Pew Global Attitudes Project, 7 September 2011, p. 3.
- 28.
For an analysis of this type of warfare see Chris Woods, Sudden Justice: America’s Secret Drone Wars, Hurst, London, 2015. ‘Islamic extremism causes concern for Muslims and Western countries’, Pew Global Attitudes Project, 14 July 2005.
- 29.
‘Global publics back US on fighting ISIS but are critical of post 9/11 torture’, Pew Research Center, 23 June 2015.
- 30.
‘Public opinion in Pakistan in the year 1980’, Gilani Research Foundation, 2 September 2014.
- 31.
‘American’ support for Israel unchanged by recent hostilities’, Pew Research Center, 26 July 2006.
- 32.
‘Modest backing for Israel in Gaza crisis’, Pew Research Center, 13 January 2013.
- 33.
‘The American-Western European values gap’, Pew Research Center, 17 November 2011. See Robert Kagan, Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order, Knopf, New York, 2003.
- 34.
Kagan, Paradise, p. 3.
- 35.
Robert Oldendick and Barbara Bordes, ‘Mass and Elite Foreign Policy Opinion’, Public Opinion Quarterly, February 1982, p. 374; See also Hazel Erskine, ‘The polls: is war a mistake?’ Public Opinion Quarterly, 1970–1971, p. 135.
- 36.
‘Americans neutral on Taiwan’, Taipei Times, 18 September 2014.
- 37.
Tom W. Smith, ‘The polls—A Report: Nuclear Anxiety’, Public Opinion Quarterly, Winter 1988, p. 563.
- 38.
For a classic defence of the balance of power see Max Beloff, The Balance of Power, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1968. For alliances forming in response to Chinese expansionism see ‘China v the rest’, The Economist, 26 March 2016, p. 63.
- 39.
See ‘How children in Germany perceived the war in Iraq’ in Defra Lemish and Maya Gotz Editors, Children and the Media in Times of War and Conflict, Hampton Press, Creskill, New Jersey, 2007, pp. 17–33. See also p. 92 on Dutch children’s reactions.
- 40.
In the BBC World Service poll for 2014 Israel was one of the four most unpopular countries alongside North Korea, Iran and Pakistan.
- 41.
‘Americans, Japanese mutual respect 70 years after the end of World War II’, Pew Research Center, 7 April 2015.
- 42.
‘Gallup and Fortune Polls: British Reactions’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 1941, p. 157.
- 43.
‘In Britain’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 1944, p. 294.
- 44.
Hadley Cantril and Mildred Strunk, Public Opinion 1935–1946, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1951, p. 20.
- 45.
See the crude opinion polls in ‘British Institute of Public Opinion’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 1940, pp. 77–80.
- 46.
Jean Owen, ‘The public and newspaper appraisals of the Suez Crisis’ and ‘Gallup Opinion Polls’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 1957–1958, pp. 350–354, 383–384, 391 and 395. ‘War on Afghanistan’, poll 11 October 2001, Granada, p. 2. See also the later poll ‘72 per cent of Britons expecting terror attack’, The Times, 7 April 2004.
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Towle, P. (2018). From Heroes to Victims. In: History, Empathy and Conflict. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77959-1_3
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