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Governing the World: A History of Internationalism from WW1 to the Present: Context

Module description

Since the 19th century individuals and states sought to promote national interests in various international fora and to find ways to ‘govern the world’ for the greater good of mankind. This module will introduce you to the rich and complex history of internationalism and the evolution of iconic organisations such as the United Nations from diverse perspectives, engaging with leading as well as lesser-known twentieth-century thinkers, policy makers, activists and transnational groupings both within and beyond the Western world. It will examine critically internationalism’s role in the shaping of the modern world, including contemporary critiques and acts of retreat from multilateralism and global cooperation.

Module aims - intentions of the module

In this module you will be able to explore the history of internationalism, international institutions and global governance, focussing on internationalism’s dynamic relationship with nationalism and the dialectic between ideals and power politics that had defined visions of global cooperation throughout the 20^th century. The module will introduce you to some of the major debates around visions for ‘governing the world’, historicising concepts and issues that marked the past century and still define our contemporary world: from multilateralism, global government and expert cultures, to human rights, development and self-determination. 

It will provide you with an opportunity to critically engage with broader questions about the evolution of particular concepts and the role of smaller / peripheral states and actors in the shaping of international institutions, the rethinking of the global order and promoting competing visions of modernity and development. The module will introduce you to new approaches in the historiography of internationalism, enabling you to historicise the process of global cooperation (and conflict) and develop the depth of understanding, research, analytical, interpretative and communication skills you will require to study more specialised areas of history or would be able to apply in graduate careers.  

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Evaluate the different complex themes in the history of internationalism from a comparative and transnational perspective
• 2. Analyse the key developments within the evolution of international institutions and global citizenship

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Make close specialist evaluation of the key developments within the period, developed through independent study and seminar work
• 4. Focus on and comprehend complex issues
• 5. Understand and deploy relevant historical terminology in a comprehensible manner
• 6. Follow the changing causes of and responses to multilateralism, global cooperation and global governance

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Conduct independent and autonomous study and group work, including presentation of material for group discussion, developed through the mode of learning
• 8. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment
• 9. Present complex arguments orally

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics on the context to the history of internationalism from the following perspectives:

• the emergence and evolution of interwar internationalism(s) – of the liberal, anti-colonial, fascist and the communist variety
• continuities and discontinuities between the League of Nations and the United Nations
• the emergence and role of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
• war, decolonisation and the history of peacekeeping
• the human rights revolution
• development and technocratic internationalism
• the rise of neoliberal internationalism
• internationalism and its discontents.

Although some of you might have already studied aspects of the history of internationalism, the introductory sessions will offer a broader overview and enable you to familiarise themselves with the more general history of internationalism before moving onto more specific and less familiar debates. The co-requisite module will provide closer scrutiny of the historical sources available for the study of internationalism, complementing this module. You will be expected to prepare for seminars by reading and evaluating the respective sources in advance, and will discuss the issues raised by them in the seminars.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Recommended reading:

• Glenda Sluga & Patricia Clavin eds., Internationalisms: A Twentieth-Century History (Cambridge University Press, 2017).
• Susan Pedersen, The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire (Oxford University Press, 2015).
• Mark Mazower, Governing the World: the history of an idea (London: Allen Lane, 2013).
• Erez Manela, The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism (Oxford University Press, 2007).
• Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo and José Pedro Monteiro, Eds. Internationalism, Imperialism and the Formation of the Contemporary World: The Pasts of the Present (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).
• Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism (Harvard University Press, 2018).
• Stephen J. Macekura and Erez Manela, Eds. The Development Century: A Global History (Cambridge University Press, 2018).
• Sandrine Kott and JoÃ?��Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½lle Droux, Eds. Globalizing Social Rights: The International Labour Organization and Beyond (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
• Ali Raza, Franziska Roy & Benjamin Zachariah, Eds. The Internationalist Moment: South Asia, Worlds, and World Views, 1917–39 (SAGE, 2015).
• Michele Louro, Comrades against Imperialism: Nehru, India, and Interwar Internationalism (Cambridge University Press, 2018).
• Holger Weiss, Ed. International Communism and Transnational Solidarity: Radical Networks, Mass Movements and Global Politics, 1919–1939 (Brill, 2016).
• Daniel Gorman, The Emergence of International Society in the 1920s (Cambridge University Press, 2012).
• Tim Rees and Andrew Thorpe, Eds. International Communism and the Communist International, 1919-43 (Manchester University Press, 1998).
• Glenda Sluga, Internationalism in the Age of Nationalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013).
• Adom Getachew, Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination (Princeton University Press, 2019).
• Steven Jensen, The Making of International Human Rights: The 1960s, Decolonization, and the Reconstruction of Global Values (Cambridge University Press, 2016).
• Gabrielle Hecht, Entangled Geographies: Empire and Technopolitics in the Global Cold War (MIT Press, 2011).
• David C. Engerman, Nils Gilman, Michael E. Latham, Mark H. Haefele, Eds. Staging Growth: Modernization, Development, and the Global Cold War (University of Massachusetts Press, 2003).
• John Toye and Richard Toye, The UN and Global Political Economy: Trade, Finance, and Development (Indiana University Press, 2004).
• Thomas G. Weiss et al. UN Voices: the Struggle for Development and Social Justice (Indiana University Press, 2005).
• Michel Christian, Sandrine Kott and Ondrej Matejka, Eds. Planning in Cold War Europe: Competition, Cooperation, Circulations (1950s-1970s) (De Gruyter, 2018).
• Alvin Z. Rubinstein, Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned World (Princeton University Press, 1970).
• Sandra Bott et al, Eds. Neutrality and Neutralism in the Global Cold War: Between or Within the Blocs? (Routledge, 2016).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11348
• United Nations Digital Library: https://digitallibrary.un.org/
• Non-Aligned Movement Database: http://cns.miis.edu/nam/#&panel1-1

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• Exeter Electronic Library resources include:
• Financial Times Historical Archive, New York Times, Guardian and Observer Archive, The Times, Foreign Broadcast Information Service Reports (1941-1996)
• Key journals and monographs for the module are available via JSTOR, Project Muse, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge Core, Cambridge Journals Online, Oxford Journals.

Key words search

Internationalism, United Nations, non-alignment