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This web site and blog is intended to act as a hub for the global community of scholars working on military occupation as a form of alien rule and as a dynamic power relationship between occupiers and occupied.
Military Occupations have been a persistent feature of international politics for at least the past two hundred years since the French Revolution. Many territories are still subject to various forms of military occupation and rule today. Yet although specific cases have been studied in great detail, this research is highly fragmented. Scholars from different disciplines, studying different territories or time periods, rarely talk to each other. The Occupation Studies Research Network promotes the exchange of ideas, the sharing of information, and aims to encourage a more systematic, comprehensive and interdisciplinary conceptual understanding of the phenomenon of military occupation.
Recent articles
What is an Occupation? On the Boundaries of a Disputed Subject
Camilo Erlichman, Maastricht University, Netherlands and Christopher Knowles, King’s College London, UK
In this extended article, the Network convenors discuss three different but inter-related conceptual understandings of occupation – for international lawyers, political scientists and historians – as an introduction to the Occupation Studies conference in July and to help answer the question ‘What is an occupation?’
Rethinking the Dynamics of Occupation: Time and Space in Diaries from the Occupied Netherlands, Ukraine and France (1940-1945)
Laura Eckl (Bergische University of Wuppertal) and Gaëlle Fisher (Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe), Germany
In the fifth article in the series, by examining concepts of time, temporality and space through the lens of the history of everyday life, we aim to shed light on similarities and differences of experiences in various occupied societies throughout Europe.
Film Industry, Moviegoing, and Nonfiction Cinema in Occupied Italy (1943-1945)
Paolo Villa, University of Parma, Italy
The fourth article in the series discusses cinema as a complex and multi-layered social institution that both reflects a historical moment and actively acts in and influences it. This panel examines cinema and films as historic objects within the broader context of the occupation, and as privileged historical sources for investigating the occupation at large.
Occupation and Annexation during the Second World War. The Case of Luxembourg
Joé Voncken, University of Luxembourg
The third article in the series situates Luxembourg’s occupation during the Second World War within a broader comparative framework and understanding of occupation, exploring the institutional and societal impact of occupation and integration policies in a small, de facto annexed state.
Connecting Aid Operations and Occupation
Brian Drohan, U.S. Military Academy, West Point and Margot Tudor, City University of London
The second article in the series introduces the panel on Military Humanitarianism, which challenges the idea of occupation as a wartime or immediately post-war activity, revealing the slipperiness between wartime/peacetime boundaries.
Under American Occupation
Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Louisiana State University, USA
The first of a series introducing some of the panels at the Network conference in July 2025 offers a long view of American occupation practices from the late C18 to the Civil War and late C19 formal imperialism. By comparing and contrasting Native American, white and Black American, Puerto Rican, and Filipino reactions, we can see patterns of both resistance and engagement with occupying forces.
The use of Literary Narratives as Historical Resources in the Study of Military Occupation
Maria Tudosescu, University of Tübingen, Germany and Aix-Marseille University, France
The interdependence between literary narrative forms and historical research has been highlighted by many scholars, most notably Hayden White. But how can literary narratives serve as valuable resources for studying historical phenomena?
The Emergence of the Concept of “Illegal Occupation” in International Law
Yaël Ronen, Academic Centre for Science and Law and Minerva Center for Human Rights at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel
The purpose of this article is to delineate the emergence of occupation as a normative concept in international discourse, namely as a phenomenon that can be labeled as legal or illegal.
A lesson still to be learnt from the Nazi past in Germany: Occupation is not peace
Tatjana Tönsmeyer, University of Wuppertal, Germany
It is widely unknown to the broader public in Germany that in the countries occupied by Nazi Germany, most of the victims were civilians who died because of occupation violence.
Walking on Stolen Land: Colonialism versus Occupation in Australian History
Nadia Wheatley, Independent scholar and author, Australia.
Occupation Studies offers a new way of thinking about what has been happening on the continent of Australia since the First Fleet arrived in January 1788.
Ukraine – two years on
Ferenc Laczó, Maastricht University, Netherlands and Tarik Cyril Amar, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Following the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, two scholars who contributed to the previous article on this blog on Ukraine- one year on, provide an update on what, in their view, has changed over the past year, and what has stayed the same?
The Intricacies of Attempting a Political Purge during the Allied Occupation of Italy, 1943-1945
Giovanni Brunetti, University of Verona, Italy.
The local delegations of the Italian High Commissions Against Fascism illustrate some of the difficulties that arise when occupiers and a new national government implement a political purge, as their interests change over time and no longer align.
The Codification of the Law of Occupation
Jonathan Gumz, University of Birmingham, UK.
In the sixth and final article in this series, Jonathan Gumz discusses how codification of the law of occupation was intended to contain conflict, but left open potential paths to the very type of uncontained conflict that it sought to avoid.
The First Allied Occupation – France 1815-18
Beatrice de Graaf, Utrecht University, NL.
This second article on the remarkably successful Allied occupation of France, 1815-18, discusses what made it new and innovative, and why it was subsequently forgotten.
The Invention of Modern Occupation: Post-Napoleonic France, 1815-1818
Christine Haynes, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, USA
The fourth article in the series argues that the example of this first modern peacekeeping mission has often been forgotten by subsequent occupiers, at great expense.
The Dutch réunion with the Napoleonic Empire
Martijn van der Burg, Open University of the Netherlands
The third article in the series explores historiographical and other reasons to be cautious in describing the Napoleonic period in the Netherlands, from 1810-1813, as a time of occupation.
The Origins of the Idea of Military Occupation
Peter Stirk
In the second article in the series, Peter Stirk argues that the tumultuous events of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars put the idea and practice of occupation, as distinct from conquest, on the international agenda.
Enforced Progress: Napoleon’s Occupation of Europe
Michael Rowe, King’s College London, UK
This first article in a series on the origins of the concept of occupation discusses how the nature and practice of occupation changed and evolved during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period, 1789 to 1815.
Toward a Global Interpretation of Military Government Anti-Fascism Campaigns
Mikkel Dack, Rowan University, USA
The major anti-fascism projects of the late 1940s and early 1950s were closely related, at least in several important ways, and certainly more so than is depicted in the existing scholarship.
Occupying Empire: A Global History of U.S. Military Government?
Justin F. Jackson, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, USA
A political history of the United States’ long career as military occupant suggests that empire’s specter haunts this paradoxical and peculiar form of rule.
Collaboration in Japanese-occupied China (1937-1945): Old and New Questions
David Serfass (Inalco-IFRAE), Paris, France
Six years after the invasion of Manchuria at the end of 1931, the Japanese army took over the most developed Chinese provinces. The eight years of the ‘War of Resistance against Japan’ (kangri zhanzheng), between 1937 and 1945, were marked by a phenomenon common to all situations of occupation: ‘collaboration’.
Re-educational Strategies beyond the Postwar Moment
Jana Aresin and Katharina Gerund, Friedrich Alexander University, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
The term ‘re-education’ is most readily associated with the immediate postwar era and the Allied occupation of Germany after the Second World War. The historical genealogy of the notion of ‘re-education’ was, however, far more complex than this simplistic understanding would suggest.
Ukraine – one year on: Reflections on the Russian invasion and occupation of parts of Ukraine
David Edelstein (Georgetown University, USA), Sophie De Schaepdrijver (Penn State University, USA), Ferenc Laczó (Maastricht University, Netherlands), Tarik Cyril Amar (Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey)
Four experts provide a brief update with their reflections on what has changed, and what has stayed the same, one year on. Can our knowledge of previous cases of occupation help us understand better what is happening now, and possible future outcomes?
The First Allied Occupation in Western Europe? Some Considerations of the Italian Experience as a “Hybrid Case” (1943-1945)
Fabio De Ninno, University of Siena, Italy
In Italy in 1943, the American and British armies brought a contradictory liberation that was both beneficial and violent, making the Italians former enemies but not proper allies.
Workshop Report: Informal Communication in Occupied Societies
Caroline Mezger, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Munich, Germany
The Second World War and its immediate aftermath were a breeding ground for alternate, informal information channels, in which rumours, gossip, and tall tales helped shape individuals’ actions and sense of reality.
Patriotic Duty or Gestapo Methods? Dutch Resisters and the Re-occupation of Indonesia
Peter Romijn, University of Amsterdam & NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies, Netherlands
Why did the newly liberated Netherlands decide to go to war between 1945 and 1950, seeking to restore its colonial rule in Indonesia? Many participants in the resistance to Nazi oppression became involved in the repression of the Indonesian freedom struggle. From 1945 to 1950 some 120.000 volunteers and conscripted Dutch were sent overseas to fight a bloody war with the Indonesian freedom fighters.
‘Lucky Victims’. German-Speaking Emigrants as Soldiers of Occupation in Germany after the Second World War
Arvid Schors, University of Cologne, Germany
Tens of thousands of German-speaking emigrants had to leave their home countries as young men owing to Nazi persecution. By the end of the war, many of their relatives had been murdered. Their world was turned upside down once again when many of them became soldiers in the U.S. and the British armies and returned in the uniform of the victors.
Learning Occupation – Francis Thiallet and the History of France and Germany 1917-1957
Julia Wambach, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
This contribution to the Network workshop on role reversals traces the life of Francis Thiallet, a French soldier and administrator. Born in 1898, he experienced and actively took part in no less than four French and German occupations in his lifetime – both as occupier and occupied.
The Occupied become Occupiers: The Case of Maczków/Haren
Samantha Knapton, University of Nottingham, UK
In the town of Haren, the entire German population was removed and replaced with Polish Displaced Persons (DPs) for three years before eventually a second reversal took place: the Poles moved out, and the Germans moved back in.
Revenge and Retribution in the Luxembourgish Occupation Zone in Germany (1945-46)
Félix Streicher, Maastricht University, Netherlands
In the winter of 1945, the soldiers of Luxembourg’s occupation army found themselves shifting from vanquished to victors, from occupied to occupiers. This inversion of roles not only amounted to a ‘symbolic reparation’ for their collective suffering under Nazi occupation, but also provided individual soldiers with an outlet to channel their desires of retaliation, retribution, and violent reprisal.
Interested in joining?
The Occupation Studies Research Network is intended to support scholars in any discipline, who are actively researching or who have recently completed work on some aspect of the subject of Military Occupation. Membership is free, and the network is not limited to any particular time period or national cases of occupation. Find out about how to apply for membership by clicking on the button below.