Communication, Interpreting and Language in Wartime

"In the age of information warfare, Ludendorff’s assertion, ‘The right words, battles won; the wrong words, battle lost’, was never truer. This important collection restores interpreters, translators and language specialists to the heart of the action where, searching for the right words to mediate conflict or manage hostilities, they have long stood but rarely received the recognition they deserve."-- Kevin Foster, Head, School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University, Australia.This edited book provides a multi-disciplinary approach to the topics of translation and cross-cultural communication in times of war and conflict. It examines the historical and contemporary experiences of interpreters in war and in war crimes trials, as well as considering policy issues in communication difficulties in war-related contexts. The range of perspectives incorporated in this volume will appeal to scholars, practitioners and policy-makers,particularly in the fields of translating and interpreting, conflict and war studies, and military history.

Amanda Laugesen is Director of the Australian National Dictionary Centre at the Australian National University. She is the author of a number of books, including Furphies and Whizz-bangs: Anzac Slang from the Great War (2015) and Taking Books to the World: American Publishers and the Cultural Cold War (2017).
 Richard Gehrmann is Senior Lecturer in International Studies at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. He has published on war and society and (with Jessica Gildersleeve) is co-editor of the book Memory and the Wars on Terror: Australian and British Perspectives (2017).