Learning by numbers
by: Jon Brunberg | 31/07/2016 11:19:26 pm

This summer's quite comprehensive refurbishing of this website is drawing to a close. It's been a big relief to be able to devote time to mend broken links, improve the code, squash a number of bugs and redesign parts of the site. But the project also reached a saddening milestone. 

War Database Update Log 2016
by: Jon Brunberg | 27/03/2016 2:47:50 pm

I’m happy to be able to announce that the long overdue update of the war database has begun. Even though the first datasets from UCDP, which much of my list of wars is based on, was released already in summer 2015, I had to attend to other projects during the fall and winter. I´m planning to, over the following weeks, update the fatality data for battle-deaths, onesided violence and non-state wars, to update some war articles, and to add preliminary posts for wars in 2015. It´s high time to get started, and you will, as always, be able to follow the update in this Update Log.

A late new year’s chronicle
by: Jon Brunberg | 17/02/2015 3:12:40 pm

A look in the rear mirror on the events and developments of the Polynational War Memorial in 2014.

Lest we forget. But who?
by: Jon Brunberg | 09/11/2014 1:19:47 pm

About commemoration, grievability and two poppy fields

Update Season 2014: Log
by: Jon Brunberg | 02/08/2014 6:14:57 pm

The annual update of the war database is now underway. Many articles are ”stubs” as they call it over at Wikipedia: they need more information. This in turn means that I have to study many conflicts of the world that I currently know very little about. This year I’ve decided to focus on wars in China from 1900 until the end of the so-called warlord era, around 1928.

I’ve also started to add new fatality figures to the database based on the latest release of data from The Uppsala Conflict Data Program earlier this summer.

Spring Cleaning!
by: Jon Brunberg | 22/03/2014 1:17:26 am

It’s spring here in Stockholm, finally, and thus time to polish the silverware and sweep out the dustballs. Over the last couple of weeks you may have noticed a few changes. I’ve rolled out a new design for the site, redesigned several pages and made some long-needed updates to the databases.

Setbacks and improvements in 2013
by: Jon Brunberg | 28/12/2013 7:47:36 pm

A short chronicle of the Polynational War Memorial in 2013.

Notes on the List of Wars Since 1900
by: Jon Brunberg | 08/12/2013 7:06:24 pm

Since the list of wars since 1900 was updated this August, it has been linked to numerous times and is at this moment the most visited page on this website. In the wake of that publicity, for which I am indeed very grateful, I’m getting questions about my definitions and the data and it’s perhaps time to straight out a few question marks.

Upgrades (and a note on conflict data)
by: Jon Brunberg | 29/07/2013 11:25:14 am

Next year I will celebrate the 10th anniversary for this project – and this website. It was in late 2003 that I decided to develop the concept for a global war memorial, and I set up the website in the spring of 2014 after some initial research and fundraising. Since then I have come to think of the website as an integral and essential part of the concept for a global war memorial for all who died because of war since 1945.

New Year’s Wishes!
by: Jon Brunberg | 30/12/2012 3:49:42 pm

There will be plenty of work for the Polynational War Memorial project in 2013. After a couple of years low-intensity work due to a series of other commitments the project will intensify its efforts to move forward with the ongoing design projects and the research into the memorials and conflicts of this world. You should, in other words, expect to hear more about the project in 2013 and I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Introducing the war memorial Google Map
by: Jon Brunberg | 14/10/2010 2:08:30 pm

In the five years that this web site has been up I have been getting numerous questions about directions, opening hours, and event programming, for specific memorials and monuments. I have slowly come to realize that many of you, who visit these pages, use the information to plan trips and I have gradually included services that will make it a little bit easier to make those plans.

New series: Memorialization at the D-Day beaches
by: Jon Brunberg | 31/08/2009 1:00:00 am

This article introduces a series of articles from a journey to Normandy and the beaches where allied forces landed when they invaded France on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Entering phase #2
by: Jon Brunberg | 15/08/2009 1:00:00 am

These are indeed exiting times for the Polynational War Memorial project, which is now moving into a period where phase #2 overlaps with phase #3. This means that the project will take one step further in terms of realization. To mark this new beginning we have made a lot of updates to the website. The most important updates are listed at the end of this editorial. Phase #3 is dedicated to research about large scale architectonic structures and how they affect, cities, countries and larger regions. The first research trip will go to Normandy in August followed by London and Berlin to look at how memorials affect tourism, economy and infrastructure.

Editorial No 7: New Articles
by: Jon Brunberg | 22/03/2007 1:00:00 am

Two new articles have been published on this website, which bring focus to contemporary, foremost European, memorial projects and the future of symbolic places.

Editorial No 6: Design Phase 2
by: Jon Brunberg | 29/12/2006 1:00:00 am

When it is now time to sum up 2006, I must conclude that it was a very productive year for the project. At the moment of writing, when new years eve is only a few days away, the last two design commissions for the complex are close to completion.

Entering the design phase!
by: Jon Brunberg | 03/07/2006 1:00:00 am

I'm proud to present the result of the first step in a series of architectonical designs that will eventually become a first proposal for a global Polynational War Memorial. The first commission was given to Anders Johansson and Erik Wingqvist, who are members of the Swedish architecture firm Testbedstudio.
They designed an Interfaith Centre for this project in September 2005, which will be the complex' main spiritual facility. The Interfaith Centre will be open for practitioners of any faith (as well as atheists), and the spiritual leaders and staff who work there integrated in the memorial complex' educational programs, research teams and negotiation processes. Read more about the Interfaith centre here! The next design projects are already underway. At the moment the architect group Servo, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Stockholm and Zürich has started working on the complex' main memorial and the last architects to have been invited is the Berlin based group Raumlabor that will design the university and museum complex. More about Servo and Raumlabor I'm also happy to announce the cooperation with composer Fred Saboonchi, who will create soundtracks for the final presentation of the project next year. Read more about Fred's projects here. Jon Brunberg Stockholm 2006-07-03

Editorial No 5
by: Jon Brunberg | 03/02/2006 1:00:00 am

This is the first editorial in quite a while, which doesn't mean that the project has been in a winter sleep. The project has on the contrary proceeded to a production mode, which means that a proposal for a Polynational War Memorial is under creation.

The 60th anniversary of the end of WWII in Berlin
by: Jon Brunberg | 22/05/2005 1:00:00 am

It has indeed been some very intensive days in the German Capital that celebrated the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII on May 8 and officially opened the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe on May 10 in the presence of around 1500 invited guests and the world media. It is an anniversary that the German Government have used to strengthening the picture of the country as a peaceful and creative democracy. At the same time the Government has chosen the time of the opening of the debated Holocaust Memorial to take place directly after the celebrations of 8 of May which will make it the undoubtedly most powerful symbol of remembrance that the German capital will see for a long time. The memorial may have many critics and will most certainly be subject to future controversies but I am sure that its presence in the very heart of the German capital will serve its purpose excellently. Below are links to all my reports posted from Berlin and links to the memorial info submitted to the database. I will continue to report and explore the memorial landscape of Berlin over the coming weeks and this list will be continually updated. ------------------------ FEATURES ------------------------ 2005-05-22 | Memorials are After All Only Symbolic Works of Art ------------------------ REPORTS ------------------------ 2005-05-12 | Images of The memorial to Europe's Murdered Jews 2005-05-12 | Opening of The memorial to Europe's Murdered Jews 2005-05-11 | Images from the Ceremony at Sowjetisches Ehrenmal 2005-05-09 | May 8: Day of Liberation, Victory or Defeat 2005-05-05 | Berlin is Preparing for the 60th Anniversary of the end of WWII >> ------------------------ MEMORIAL INFO ------------------------ Soviet War Memorial in Treptow >> Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten >> Memorial to Polish Soldiers and German Anti-Fascists in Berlin >> The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe >> Neue Wache >>

Counts and Commemoration
by: Jon Brunberg | 01/01/2005 1:00:00 am

There are organisations that have tried to establish the human cost of the war in Iraq - sometimes under extreme circumstances - and others have used the data collected by those organisations in commemorative exhibitions and name-reading events in remembrance to killed civilians and soldiers regardless of nationality. We are now publishing two articles that are focusing on a handful of these organisations that have made an astonishing work in an effort to bring light to the cold facts of this man-made disaster that may have killed over 100,000 people and left millions wounded and displaced.