Thinking about and planning for the end of war generally begins as soon as fighting breaks out, if not long before. Yet few studies analyse how participants considered and prepared for war's outcomes, and even fewer compare the dynamic of wartime projections in different times and places. Using a transnational longitudinal approach, this article focuses on a series of case-studies across Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia to examine how the end of war was imagined. It highlights interactions between war and its aftermaths and challenges the notion of 'the post-war' as an a priori category by stressing its historical contingency and fluidity. The 'aftermaths of war' are, we argue, constantly in the process of formation, contestation and evolution. Throughout our case-studies we observe hopes for post-war peace and prosperity alongside fears of post-war disorder-including revolution, racial war and even genocide. The tension between hope and fear about the aftermaths of war appears as a constant, although the ways in which hope and fear play themselves out are context-specific. Such sentiments are often expressed in a language of religion, which never entirely disappears but is supplemented and at times overcome by more secular doctrines of salvation-nationalism, socialism, imperialism or welfareism. The conclusion brings us to the present by exploring how and when the aftermaths of these distinct but interrelated wars end, or, by contrast, endure and overlap.

Since early last century women have been at the forefront of humanitarian aid and humanitarian work during wars and other forms of violent conflict within and between nations. They joined international aid organisations like Save the Children (formed 1919), Plan International (formed 1937), and International Social Service (formed 1924). These organisations remain active today and have demonstrated remarkable resilience across the twentieth and 21st centuries, assisting children through various means. Through a biographical lens, we can capture the activism of some relatively unknown Australian women who traversed the national and international arena and examine changes in their approaches to humanitarian work. Most of the women discussed here feature only within specialist fields where they might appear fleetingly, or within narratives where they are not the main focus of study.

Abstract The ocean is a central site of escape, danger, and rescue for refugees. It is also a place where oceanic humanitarianism is enacted. In histories of refugee migration, the combination of the ocean, weather, and climate in determining the fate of refugees has not been adequately examined. This article provides a critical analysis of a Vietnamese refugee boat journey in 1982, to demonstrate the paradoxical nature of the ocean as both a site of danger and saviour. Conventional historical methodologies alone cannot capture the complex role of the ocean and the weather in determining boat refugee journeys and rescues. Interdisciplinary research between historians and ocean engineers provides new evidence and understanding of how the ocean and weather influences the outcomes of refugees seeking asylum by boat. Numerical model predictions of sea state and ship motion – which enables the vessel's journey in past environmental conditions to be understood – integrated within historical analysis contributes to a fuller and more complex understanding of the nexus between environmental conditions and forced migration journeys. Ocean engineering produces a scientific narrative that historians can use, alongside oral histories and other sources, to theorize the ocean as an active agent.

Spanning six decades from the formation of the Save the Children Fund in 1919 to humanitarian interventions during the Vietnam War, The Humanitarians maps the national and international humanitarian efforts undertaken by Australians on behalf of child refugees. In this longitudinal study, Joy Damousi explores the shifting forms of humanitarian activity related to war refugee children over the twentieth century, from child sponsorship, the establishment of orphanages, fundraising, to aid and development schemes and campaigns for inter-country adoption. Framed by conceptualisations of the history of emotions, and the limits and possibilities afforded by empathy and compassion, she considers the vital role of women and includes studies of unknown, but significant, women humanitarian workers and their often-traumatic experience of international humanitarian work. Through an examination of the intersection between racial politics and war refugees, Damousi advances our understanding of humanitarianism over the twentieth century as a deeply racialised and multi-layered practice.