Читать книгу War Time - Группа авторов - Страница 6

Not just war, but also this book, is a product of its time. It has been shaped by a long war studies tradition that invites different disciplines to come together in a quest to produce relevant knowledge about the character of contemporary wars and the West’s alleged decline. These are complex phenomena shaped by a multitude of factors, yet all are, as we argue in this book, connected by a certain understanding of temporality in the form of trajectories, perceptions, and pace. This project has brought together an outstanding group of experts to contribute their assessments of the role of time in Western concepts of military power and the West’s ability to win wars. Without their willingness to draw on their professional experience, this book would not exist. The excellent Center for War Studies at the University of Southern Denmark, where we, the editors, are located, provided the necessary networks, connections, and expertise to make this book a reality, and we thank all of our colleagues for their ideas, comments, and support.

For organizing a workshop dedicated to the book at Yale University in August 2019, we would especially like to thank our colleague James Rogers. We are grateful for the support of Paul Kennedy, head of Yale’s International Security Studies, and to workshop presenters and discussants—Shama Ams, Bach Avezdjanov, Jean-Francois Bélanger, Michael Brenes, Agnes Callamard, Neil Cooper, Michael Franczak, Carolyn Horn, Wes Hutto, Jens Ringsmose, Jean-Baptiste Jeangene Vilmer, Emily Whalen, Michael John Williams, and Claire Yorke—for immensely helpful feedback.

We are indebted to David Dunn, Sibylle Scheipers, and Jamie Shea for constructive and insightful comments offered during and after a further study group workshop at Chatham House in September 2019. This workshop was co-funded by Chatham House and the Carlsberg Foundation, and we are grateful for their support. Finally, we gratefully acknowledge the anonymous reviewers who in early 2020 commented on the full manuscript. All remaining errors or inconsistencies in the book are solely our own responsibility.

We would like to thank our editors at Chatham House, Caroline Soper, Amanda Moss, and Margaret May, for believing in this project from the outset, for their outstanding help with and organization of the entire process, and for truly excellent editing. We also thank our partner in the United States, William Finan of the Brookings Institution Press, for sharing Chatham House’s belief in the book and agreeing to publish it.

As the saying goes, all good things take time. The initial conversation with Caroline Soper and William Finan about what was then just an idea for a book took place in San Francisco in April 2018. The rest is a history of engagement and preoccupation that has come at a cost to our families. For their unfailing support we are beyond grateful.

Sten Rynning, Olivier Schmitt, and Amelie Theussen