The International Anti-Anarchist Conference of 1898 and the Origins of Interpol

Bibliographic Data

ID10074076
AuthorsRichard Bach Jensen (0000-0002-3715-5060, corresponding author)
Year1981
Volume16
Issue2
Pages323-347
Publication date1981-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/002200948101600205
OpenAlexW2045529775
LanguageEN
Citations received26

The International Anti-Anarchist Conference which met in Rome in 1898 is one of those events that has slipped into virtual historical limbo. Apparently baffled by the secrecy that enshrouded the sessions and final resolutions of the Rome meeting, one historian has concluded that, though various countries agreed to attend, in the end the Conference was never held at all.' Those historians who do acknowledge that the highly secret meeting took place readily agree that it was abortive, producing few if any practical results.2 Even the head of France's delegation at the Rome Conference, Camille Barrere, wrote off its propositions as possessing no more value than 'the paper they were written on'.3 An examination of the Conference's minutes and of other evidence previously neglected, however, suggests that the Rome meeting was much more than simply a futile exercise in rhetoric.4 It was significant first of all because it played a key role in a twentyfive year anti-anarchist campaign waged in greater or lesser degree by all the rulers of Europe. In the period before the Great War, European governments, at first on a national level and then internationally, struggled to forge weapons that might control and suppress what was then perceived as society's fiercest and most intractable enemy, anarchist terrorism. These efforts produced mixed results, however, since repression frequently exacerbated discontent, producing new outbursts of violence rather than terminating them.5

Adversary · Aesthetics · Art · Delegation · Media studies · Period (music · Political science · Rhetoric · Secrecy · Sociology · Terrorism · Anarchism and Radical Politics · Classics · French Historical and Cultural Studies · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Philosophy

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