This dataset contains the bibliography of the DFG-funded research training group 2840 "Ambivalent Enmity. Dynamics of Antagonism in Europe, Asia and the Middle East" with the following research concept: In an era marked by increasing polarization within and between societies and nations, studies on the nature, expressions, and forms of enmity have become an urgent societal concern. Processes of “enemization” (M. Edelman) threaten peace within and between societies in many parts of the world. The internet and social media facilitate the rapid spread and radicalization of enemy images and the creation of self-enclosed realities. Neither the intensity nor the contingency of such processes are anything new: Seemingly stable constellations of “hereditary enmity” (Erbfeindschaften) have marked relationships and driven conflicts between intimately linked neighbors throughout history, in Europe and elsewhere. Yet, just as frequently, entrenched hostilities have revealed uncertain identities and struggles to come to terms with paradoxical patterns of fear and latent attraction.

"Enmity must be understood as a processual and deeply ambivalent category."

A prime example of such ambivalence toward the enemy is collaboration. Historical research on collaboration in WWII, including collaboration during the Holocaust, provides ample evidence of shifting enemy images, fragile loyalties, and uncertain identities shaped through extended contact in occupied territories and societies. Complex wartime biographies often fail to reveal clear distinctions between collaboration with the enemy and loyalty to the old regime. Instead, they point to situations of “choiceless choice,” moral grey zones, and the confusion of contradictory roles: as victims, followers, resisters, collaborators, and accomplices. Ambivalent Enmity is designed to explore such ambivalences and develop more adequate tools to analyze the construction, representation, enactment, and experience of enmity. Our goal is to contribute to a theory-guided understanding of the dynamics of antagonism through empirical case studies situated in and between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East from the Middle Ages to the present.