Conflict and the Senses in the Global Cold War: From Propaganda to Sensory Warfare
October 15-16, 2020. Berlin, Germany
Organizer: Berlin Center for Cold War Studies, Berlin; in cooperation with Stiftung Luftbrückendank and Stiftung Ernst-Reuter-Archiv Berlin
Although a conflict in which military strategies and weapons of mass destruction were always on the “horizon of expectation”, the Cold War was to a large degree carried out by non-lethal methods. It was also a war of culture, politics, and (visual and sonic) propaganda. Therefore, it can be understood to a great extent as a war not only on the senses, but as a war through the senses. In recent times, sensory aspects of domestic and international conflicts have become a field of interest in both sensory studies and conflict studies, with their methods and questionnaires intertwining in fruitful cooperation. (1) Historiographical approaches include the study of conflicts from the American Civil War to the Russian Revolution to both World Wars, and these examine how wars as the most extreme form of conflict were perceived—and how war changed contemporary perception. (2) The central conflict of the second half of the 20th century, though, is still a blatantly unexplored area in terms of sensory approaches. (3)
