Enemy Encounters in Modern Warfare

While the 1914 Christmas truces have a mythological status in British culture, intimate interactions with the enemy are, this edited collection shows, a staple of modern warfare.

Spanning the nineteenth century to the present, chapters consider how feeling for the enemy is shaped by competing ideals of nationalism, patriotism and cosmopolitanism, and explore limits to recognitions that 'they are just like us' structured by nationality, race, religion and class.

Contributors scrutinise asymmetries of power in enemy encounters, including by gender, sexuality, economic security or precarity.