Abstract
Next port of call: Tallinn, Estonia
Dear colleagues,
It has already been two years since our last International Congress of Maritime History in Busan, South Korea. This also means that it is only two years until our next Congress, which will be held in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Please mark your calendar for Monday, 29 May 2028 through Thursday, 1 June 2028 for the main Congress, to be held at the Estonian Maritime Museum. In addition, the Åland Maritime Museum has invited us for a pre-conference meeting in Mariehamn, the capital of the Åland Islands, and we are hoping to be able to develop a package deal that will allow maritime historians from all over the world not only to come to the main Congress in Tallinn, but also to join the pre-conference meeting in Mariehamn. Thus, it might be an idea to mark your calendar not only for the Congress itself, but also for a potential visit to the Åland Islands before. Travelling to the Baltic Sea in late May and early June means travelling to a region with an enormous rich and varied maritime history at a time of year when the sun will set only for a short time during the night. In other words, it will be an ideal location and time for us.
Although I would prefer to continue writing about our upcoming Congress, I think I should switch gear and continue with something else we need to think about at this time.
The world has changed significantly since our last meeting in Busan, and we need to assume that the period until the opening of our next Congress will see many additional changes that nobody can predict today. We are witnessing a world in which active wars are going on in several places; major international shipping routes have been interrupted, with unforeseeable consequences for maritime trade; and there have even been attacks on university campuses that are located far away from these theatres of war and shipping routes.
I am sure you are asking yourself, as am I, what these developments might mean for maritime historians from all over the globe and for an international scholarly organization like the International Maritime History Association (IMHA). Should, and can, we simply ignore what is going on in the world around us and continue with business as usual? Of course, the answer to this question is different for each of us and depends on if we are located in a region that is directly affected by these developments or if we are fortunate enough to live and work in an area that is only indirectly affected by the economic fallout.
But maybe all of us should consider our obligations as historians and intellectuals, and reconsider the ideas of the founders of the IMHA – or, to be more precise, the founders of the International Maritime Economic History Association and the International Congress of Maritime History as the two predecessors of the IMHA – when they came together and established these international scholarly associations. Their vision was to bring together maritime historians from all over the globe to exchange and discuss the latest results of historical research related to everything maritime, and although their first meetings happened half a century ago, this basic mission statement of our association has not changed.
This might entail not only topics that are seemingly unrelated to today's events, but also topics where there are obvious parallels. For example, the blockage and tolling of major shipping routes has always been used as a tool to achieve certain political goals, regardless of whether these routes were being used by medieval vessels like the northern European cogs, Asian junks, dhows of the Indian Ocean, sailing vessels in the early modern period, or tankers in the modern period. We all also know that, overall and from a supranational perspective, these attempts did not secure global peace or long-term positive economic development. Thus, it might be an idea for us as a global community of maritime historians to look at developments in the past that resulted in the end of such blockades and other kinds of maritime conflicts. If we might be able to explain how past conflicts were resolved, we will still not be able to present a blueprint for solving today's conflicts but, hopefully, we will be able to provide at least some examples that such conflicts can be resolved. As historians, we too often analyse what went wrong in the past. While this is necessary and an important part of our profession, we should not forget also to study the periods when conflicts were brought to an end in a way that benefitted everybody and became the basis for a period of peace and cooperation. I consider Max Frisch's play The Arsonists (also known as The Firebugs or The Fire Raisers and in German as Biedermann und die Brandstifter) to be one of the most important reads for any historian and would recommend all of you to read it if you have not done so already. We need not only to understand our obligation to warn about certain developments before it is too late, but also how to extinguish the fire and repair any damage in a way that we can all live in the house again. Maybe it is time to focus our research on how conflicts have been ended and peace and international trade and shipping have been restored.
Among our community of international maritime historians, there are colleagues who have served in various navies and/or are reserve officers, colleagues who are conscientious objectors and colleagues who are no longer with us, who have decided to leave their country to avoid the draft. At our Congresses, everyone has always been able to come together and discuss their take on a particular period or event in maritime history, and even if there was not always consensus, there was at least the common ground of analysing the past to understand the present and (hopefully) create a better tomorrow. Let us not forget this mission statement and, more importantly, let all of us use the remaining two years until we meet in Tallinn to prepare to continue with this tradition.
Our 2028 Congress will most certainly become a major event for our global community of maritime historians. Let us at least aim for our discussions and scholarly exchange to contribute a little not only to understanding what causes international (maritime) conflicts, but, more importantly, also to how to end these conflicts and restore peace and international shipping. We will have a multitude of panels that will engage with all kinds of maritime history, regardless of the time period or body of water, but if you will permit me one wish, I am hoping that we will have at least one panel focusing exclusively on how past maritime conflicts have been brought to an end in a way that benefitted all parties involved. It may be difficult to find topics and historical case studies for such a panel, but searching for them is the least we can, and should, do as maritime historians in these challenging times. As you might know, a good deal of my own research is dedicated to Antarctic (maritime) history, and this provides me with at least some hope when it comes to the relationship between science and research and international conflicts. After all, it was during the heyday of the Cold War that Antarctic researchers on both sides of that global conflict came together to coordinate their research activities. The ultimate result of this international scientific cooperation was the Antarctic Treaty System – a system that has guaranteed peace on a whole continent ever since, regardless of the substantial potential for conflict. I am not so naïve to assume that a Congress like ours in Tallinn in 2028 might have remotely comparable outcomes, but sharing our research results and maybe also coordinating plans for future research among a global community of scholars dedicated to maritime history will hopefully contribute at least a little to achieving what we are all hoping for at this time.
I am looking forward to welcoming you all in Tallinn between Monday, 29 May and Thursday, 1 June 2028, and I am even more looking forward to our discussions on analysing and understanding the maritime past to achieve a more just and peaceful world in which the mariners of today and tomorrow can sail their ships freely and without fear. Arvid Pardo described the oceans in 1967 as the ‘Common Heritage of Mankind’ and, as we all know, heritage is a complex concept that regularly requires professionals to avoid its oversimplification and abuse. Pardo might not have been thinking about heritage in the way we as historians are used to, but let us take his words as a challenge to our profession – that we need to analyse our common maritime heritage not only for itself, but also for a better future for all mankind.