Index of University Press Releases

Sept. 26, 2007

DWU’s Flynn to present at history conference

Sean Flynn

MITCHELL – Sean Flynn, associate professor of history at DWU, will present a paper Oct. 2-6 at the 42nd Annual Northern Great Plains History Conference in Duluth, Minn.

Flynn conducted the research for his paper during a university-sponsored sabbatical in the fall semester of 2006. He did archival research at the National Archives of the United Kingdom in Kew, England, and at the British Library in London.

His paper, “Macedonian Resistance and the Decline of Anglo-Austrian Relations, 1900-1904,” examines the deterioration in the historic friendship between Great Britain and Austria resulting from British policy in the Balkans.

Flynn argues that by approving Russia’s strategic goals in Macedonia and the greater Balkan Peninsula, the British isolated the Austrians, forcing Vienna to seek closer ties with Germany, a nation that Austria had been loath to support. Whereas before 1904 Austria had acted as a brake on German foreign policy, after that date she relied on Germany to help defend Austrian security interests against the Russian threat. It was a change of diplomatic course, Flynn concludes, that proved disastrous for Europe in 1914.

Flynn has been a faculty member at DWU since 1999. For more information about the history department at DWU, visit www.dwu.edu/history.