Mobilisation(s)" conference

Since 24 February 2022 and the return of war to Europe, the resilience of Ukrainian society and the Ukrainian state has been admired, particularly for its ability to mobilise its population and society. These questions often boil down to a simple fact: people, materials and equipment, quickly and en masse, to meet the challenges of high intensity and a conflict requiring limited resources.

The term mobilisation conjures up images of posters calling on men to join their units at a time of generalised conscription, in a very different context. It also refers to the way in which societies were organised, remodelled and transformed in order to compensate for shortages, deaths and changes in the world of work.

The conflict in Ukraine naturally invites us to revisit and put into perspective what used to unite us, the preparation of the masses through conscription, the renewal of combatants, until greater political sensitivity and the time of expeditionary wars put this issue aside.

Bringing together historians, sociologists, political scientists, practitioners and witnesses, this colloquium is primarily intended as a reflection on what could be a mobilisation in the sense of the 21st century.^e century, making less use of the masses and more of skills.