How are important are blockades to the outcome of wars?
Trade blockades are an old tool that is still used in wars. The ERC has awarded an EUR 9.9 million grant to see how significant they really are.
“We believe that understanding the blockades is crucial to understanding the world wars and the era they took place in,” says Jonas Scherner, a professor from the Department of Modern History and Society at NTNU.
“This can also help us understand how blockades work today,” says Alan Kramer, a professor emeritus from Trinity College Dublin and senior professor at Universität Hamburg.
The ERC support amounts to EUR 9.9 million, or roughly NOK 117 million, spread over six years starting in 2025. Approximately EUR 2.8 million, or NOK 33 million, will go to the Trondheim group.
ERC Grants
- The European Research Council (ERC) was established by the EU in 2007 and is the leading European funding organization for outstanding research.
- Every year, the ERC funds the very best, creative researchers to run projects based in Europe.
- NTNU has a goal of increasing the number of applications and percentage of acceptances in the ERC calls. The university has increased its project portfolio from Horizon 2020 to Horizon Europe.
- ERC grants are divided into Starting, Consolidator, Advanced and Synergy Grants. A Synergy grant is where 2 to 4 researchers come together to solve a question that they could not solve without joint expertise.
- The ERC has funded more than 10,000 top researchers and over 16,000 projects, in addition to PhD students and other employees who work in its research teams.
- The ERC strives to attract top researchers from all over the world to come to Europe.
“The Faculty of Humanities is very proud of this grant. The project’s topic is very important for how we understand history but is also highly relevant to the present day,” says Terje Lohndal, NTNU’s Vice Dean for Research.
Lohndal thanked everyone, especially project leader Scherner, for the significant effort in making this happen, and congratulates them on the grant.
One Continuous Conflict
Jonas Scherner. Photo:NTNU
It is entirely possible to view the two world wars as one continuous conflict. The First World War (1914 to 1918) indirectly led to the Second World War (1939 to 1945, according to common European understanding). To cover both the prelude and the aftermath, the research period spans from 1900 to 1960.
“In both wars, the parties tried to blockade their enemies to cut off access to resources such as food, oil, information, and capital,” says Scherner.
“Blockades were a very effective tool to weaken the enemy, primarily by impacting the civilian population,” Kramer said.
More than 30 countries were involved in the First World War, and more than 50 in the Second. This also had significant consequences for many countries that tried to remain neutral. The researchers are also interested in how colonies or neutral countries were affected, such as Norway during the First World War.
The Aftermath Matters
“Blockades impacted societies, nations, and alliances worldwide, triggered new solutions and learning, created new forms of violence, and changed humanitarian conditions,” Scherner said.
“It is very important not only to view this from a Western European perspective but to see it as blockades of entire regions that have previously received less attention. This includes Japan, Southeast Asia, and Africa,” Kramer said.
The aftermath is also important. How did the blockades affect the people who lived through them, and how did this influence people’s values, worldviews, and political decisions afterward?
First Comprehensive Overview of Blockades
The project is called “The Hidden Weapon: Blockade in the Era of the Two World Wars.” Previous research in this field is fragmented. Providing a comprehensive picture of the effects of blockades is consequently important for the EU. Blockades are still used as a tool in wars today.
“As far as we can tell, we are the first modern historians to receive an ERC Synergy Grant,” Scherner said.
The project is also in collaboration with Samuël Kruizinga from the University of Amsterdam and Elisabeth Piller, currently at the University of Freiburg, who completed her doctorate at NTNU.
