If the twentieth century, as Eric Hobsbawm described it, was an "Age of Extremes," this young twenty-first century seems already to be marked by its hatreds. But are the forces that dominate contemporary affairs actually new? Do the challenges of previous centuries offer any insights for a world defined by terrorism and the war thereon? On April 1, 2005, International Security Studies at Yale University will sponsor a conference in New Haven, Connecticut, to discuss those questions. We particularly encourage submissions from younger scholars and doctoral students in history and political science

This conference will explore how hatred—personal as well as ideological—has shaped the historical dynamics of peace, war, and politics. We intend to consider the ways that hatred becomes a social and political force, the ways it relates to local and international stability, the ways it motivates and frustrates collective action, and the ways it informs agendas and boundaries. We will seek to examine the differences between self-contained rivalries and threats to international order, between popular conflict and ethnic violence, between visceral furies and ideological programs. We aim to analyze the impact of demagoguery, the nature of grassroots aggression, the dynamics of the "cycle of violence," and the possibility of negotiated resolutions. We hope to reevaluate the concepts of "political violence," of local and national self-defense, of minority and majority rights, of nationalism and identity.

Historians and commentators are more inclined today to credit the power of hatred than they have been in the past. This conference means to raise questions about what they may have failed to credit before, and why they may have done so. We aim to be thematic, comparative, and interdisciplinary. Presentations will be fifteen to twenty minutes long. Please e-mail a CV and a 300-word proposal to Dan Cunnane (e-mail address given below) by December 15, 2004. Possible topics include:

• Hatred, Violence, and Nations
• Hatred, Empire, and Colonialism
• Ethnic Conflict
• War and Occupation
• Violence and Human Rights
• Historical Revisionism
• Local Conflict and International Order
• Riots, Pogroms, and Genocide
• Revolution and Counterrevolution
• Patterns of Totalitarianism
• Terrorism
• Anti-Americanism
• "Peace" Processes