WRITING A NEW HISTORY OF TREASON

The concept of 'traitors' has been a constant in human history, with the crime of treason viewed as the most heinous, prosecuted in most states from the ancient world until the present day. This crime usually involves a power struggle since treason means breaking a bond of loyalty owed to a state or community, challenging the existing order and often trying violently to overthrow it. This can occur in the domestic arena, or through allegiance with some foreign force hostile to the home community of the traitor. Examples of domestic treason are the assassins of Caesar, the Gunpowder Plot, or the assassination attempt on Hitler in 1944. Examples of foreign treachery are renegades in times of war (Roger Casement), nationalists with foreign allegiance (the Sarajevo assassins of 1914), or traitor-spies after the Second World War (the Rosenbergs; the Cambridge spies). As this reveals, the domestic and foreign threads are often interlinked (e.g. Quisling in Norway). How they are interpreted tells us much about any regime's relationship to its citizens, its (in)stability, and the evolving threats posed to its domestic and foreign security. The scale of punishment for traitors also reflects how far the regime feels threatened.

Although most concretely defined as a crime, treason is also a subjective concept, best conceived in the eye of the beholder and often specific to one era or the security needs of a particular regime. Our network aims to show that the phenomenon of treason is a highly useful touchstone for measuring social stability, as well as the nature of power struggles, under a range of regimes. Therein lies the past and contemporary relevance of the topic.

Indeed, the historic phenomenon of treason still surfaces regularly in the present even if modern states and regimes may now term it 'terrorism' or 'whistle-blowing'. Yet conceptual thinking about treason is singularly undeveloped, often relying on simple public stereotypes. Academic scholarship is also fragmented and skewed towards case studies about particular historical periods. The current network of scholars will rectify this by deepening our understanding of treason as a phenomenon surfacing in every century, while aiding a wider public understanding of the present relevance of the subject. Focusing our discussions on the European and North American continents, we address three themes: (1) treason in law; (2) the cultural representation of traitors; (3) the impact and heritage of treason. Under each theme we think comparatively across time and geography to formulate something of a global history. We expect to find certain similarities in how treason was defined and prosecuted in the past, and how stereotypes of traitors resonated in widely different cultures. At the same time, we envisage finding distinct differences in the laws or language of treason due to the special security threats faced by regimes, the ideological struggles of the era, and the radically singular characters of polity or society on different continents.

Discussions among an international group of scholars will also advance interdisciplinary research since, although most network participants are historians, we aim to draw specialists on law, language, social science and ethics into the network. Our discussions will be disseminated through online seminars, interviews and academic publications, and we are also keen to redefine public preconceptions about treason. We will be effecting knowledge-transfer with the Tower of London, seeking its expertise on the heritage and public representation of traitors, while feeding our findings into the Tower's future plans for its exhibitions and engagement with international audiences. Our dual academic partnership between Britain and Germany (Southampton and Freiburg) also ensures that from the start our research and public profile is international, while the network's core members give our research a potential global impact.