The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne remains one of the few interwar peace settlements to have endured into the twenty-first century. Yet its legacy remains deeply contested: celebrated as a triumph of sovereignty and peacemaking, Lausanne also came to symbolise forced displacement, the erosion of minority rights, and the use of population transfer as an instrument of international order.

The Lausanne Moment revisits the diplomatic settlement and its long afterlives. Moving beyond high diplomacy, the volume brings together historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, political scientists and cultural theorists to explore how Lausanne reshaped sovereignty, displacement and identity across the post-Ottoman world.

Its contributions range from refugees and orphans in Greece to Kurdish experiences in Turkey, Cyprus and Albania, and the memories of displacement preserved through music, education and cultural practice. They also examine public debt, cultural heritage and the persistence of imperial practices within new national frameworks.

By connecting international politics with lived experience, The Lausanne Moment asks what the “peace” of 1923 meant for those who lived through its consequences—and what Lausanne continues to mean a century later.

The volume grew largely out of The Lausanne Moment: 100 Years On, an international conference organised by The Lausanne Project in collaboration with the University of Macedonia, held in Thessaloniki in November 2023. Bringing together scholars and practitioners from across Europe, North America and Asia, the conference provided the starting point for many of the interdisciplinary conversations developed in the book.

Forthcoming 2026. US distribution by University of Chicago Press.