Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Patrick Quinton-Brown, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

The field of International Relations in the British Academy was originally conceived of as a tool to ensure the continuation of the British Commonwealth of Nations during a century wherein white supremacy was increasingly challenged. Martin Wight, an English historian, popularized the concept of “international society”, whose membership comprised diplomats and statesmen intent on limiting the frequency and intensity of war. “International Society” imbibed the organizing principles of the Commonwealth: inter-dependency for civilized (white) powers, dependency for un-civilized (non-white) peoples. No surprise, then, that Wight increasingly associated the worst elements of anarchy – war and violence –with anti-colonial self-determination movements. In this talk I will reimagine the pursuit of peace by examining anti-colonial movements against nuclear Armageddon in Asia-Pacific. Beginning with the Bandung Conference I will then turn to the Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific movement of the late twentieth century. Led by Pacific women, this peace movement confronted nuclear war, military imperialism, and settler-colonialism as intersecting axes of oppression. Contrary to the colonial logic of Wight’s “international society” and his distrust of anti-colonial self-determination, the Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific movement pursued a peace far more salient and fundamental than models of good imperial governance could ever account for.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Robbie Shilliam is Professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University. He is most recently the author of Decolonizing Politics (Polity Press, 2021).

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this webinar has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to arios@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the session.