The School of Sociology, in conjunction with the School of History and the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, College of Asia and the Pacific, is jointly sponsoring a Public Lecture by Dr Robin Archer, London School of Economics.

The lecture, entitled ‘The Appeal to Honour and the Decision for War’ will be held at 3pm on 12 August 2014 in the Coombs Extension Lecture Theatre 1.04 (Bldg 8) ANU (map:http://campusmap.anu.edu.au/displaybldg.asp?no=8 ).

This paper marks the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. In Australia, the arrival of the war often seems to be treated like a bushfire or an ‘Act of God’. And there is surprisingly little attention to how uncertain entry into the war was for Britain and its Dominions, and how finely balanced the forces for and against intervention were. The paper examines the role of appeals to honour in the decision for war in the English-speaking world