Greater Britain or Greater Synthesis? Seeley, Mackinder, and Wells on Britain in the global industrial era

2001 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL DEUDNEY
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
State System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Integration ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Special Relationship ◽  
National Integration ◽  
Geographic Factors ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
New Perspective

At the zenith of British power at the beginning of the twentieth century there was a widespread recognition that Britain's position in the emerging global industrial inter-state system was increasingly precarious and that widespread adjustments would be needed. One solution, the ‘imperial federalism’ of Seeley and Mackinder, proposed the political integration of the scattered British settler colonies into a ‘Greater Britain’. Alternatively, Wells predicted that Britain would become integated into an Anglo-American ‘greater synthesis’, and that Europe would be unified on ‘Swiss confederal’ rather than German authoritarian lines. These proposals and prophesies were based upon interpretations of the changing material context composed of technology interacting with geography, and were seriously flawed. Extensive debates on these schemes indicate that the range of grand strategic choice was broader than that conceptualized by contemporary realism. The failure of British national integration due to geographic factors and the endurance of the Anglo-American special relationship casts the roles of the nation-state and the Western liberal order in a new perspective.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Korean War ◽  
State System ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Territorial Sovereignty ◽  
The Korean War

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book tells a story of the changing script of warfare in the mid-twentieth century through the Korean War. At stake in this conflict was not simply the usual question of territorial sovereignty and the nation-state. The heart of the struggles revolved around the question of political recognition, the key relational dynamic that formed the foundation for the post-1945 nation-state system. This book argues that in order to understand how the act of recognition became the essential terrain of war, one must step away from the traditional landscape of warfare—the battlefield—and into the interrogation room.

Province and Nation: The Chekiang Provincial Autonomy Movement, 1917–1927

1977 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Keith Schoppa
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Nation State ◽  
National Integration ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Administrative Efficiency ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
Provincial Autonomy

Humiliated and shaken by the depredations of the imperialist nations, early twentieth-century Chinese leaders sought the establishment of a strong nation-state. Bitter struggles over the means to reach that goal—primarily over the distribution of political power—ended in the demise of the Ch'ing, the defeat of Yuan Shih-k'ai, and the turmoil of the “warlord” period. After Yuan's death in 1916, the dispute over distribution of power thrust into serious consideration the model of a federation for building a nation out of China's disparate regions and interests. Some felt that a federation was perhaps a more effective integrating form than the centralized bureaucratic model the late Ch'ing and Yuan Shih-k'ai had supported. The debate was not new in China. However, during the empire, proponents of centralization (chün-hsien) and decentralization (feng-chien) had been concerned with finding the form that would produce the greatest stability and administrative efficiency; now the Chinese were obsessed with the issue for life-and-death reasons. 2 Rapid national integration seemed imperative for China's survival. In 1901, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao had discussed the possibilities of a Chinese federation; 3 but, until 1916, federalism was effectively submerged by the centralizers. Amid increasing turmoil after Yuan's death, federalism seemed to provide an answer to chaotic instability.

scholarly journals LANGUAGES OF FREEDOM IN DECOLONISING AFRICAThe Gladstone Prize Winner

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 253-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
Before And After ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual

ABSTRACTThe ‘triumph of liberalism’ in the mid-twentieth-century west is well known and much studied. But what has it meant for the way the decolonisation of Africa has been viewed, both at the time and since? In this paper, I suggest that it has quietly but effectively shaped our understanding of African political thinking in the 1950s to 1960s. Although the nationalist framing that once led historians to neglect those aspects of the political thinking of the period which did not move in the direction of a territorial nation-state has now been challenged, we still struggle with those aspects of political thinking that were, for instance, suspicious of a focus on the individual and profoundly opposed to egalitarian visions of a post-colonial future. I argue that to understand better the history of decolonisation in the African continent, both before and after independence, while also enabling comparative work with other times and places, we need to think more carefully and sensitively about how freedom and equality were understood and argued over in local contexts.

scholarly journals The Spatiality of Politics: Cesare Battisti's Regional and International Thought, 1900–1916

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Or Rosenboim
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Geographical Knowledge ◽  
Intellectual Context ◽  
Political Essays ◽  
Political Thinker ◽  
Main Figure

Abstract This article concerns the conceptualization of political spaces in early twentieth-century European political thought. The main figure is the Italian geographer and political thinker Cesare Battisti (1875–1916). Drawing on his geographical knowledge of his native region of Trentino, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Battisti envisioned an alternative political order in Central Europe. In a series of geographical surveys and political essays, he described his idea of the region as a meaningful political space, that could become an alternative to both empire and nation-state as part of a continental democratic federation. The article argues that through this new spatial conceptualization of region and federation, Battisti sought to reinterpret the political categories of authority and community. The article examines Battisti's ideas in their historical and intellectual context, arguing that he offers original insights on the evolution of European international and regional thought in the twentieth century.

Churchill, Powell and the Conservative ‘Brexiteers’: The Political Legacies of the Anglosphere

2019 ◽  
pp. 191-206
Author(s):  
Michael Kenny ◽  
Nick Pearce
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
European Union ◽  
The Political ◽  
British Politics ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
High Politics

This chapter advances the case for a more ‘political’ reading of the Anglosphere discourse than is typically offered by its advocates, or by its academic commentators and critics. The authors stress the plentiful rhetorical resources and motifs associated with this shifting current of thinking, and the political opportunities and dilemmas associated with its recurrent deployment in high politics throughout the twentieth century. They give particular emphasis to the ways in which the Anglosphere ideal was re-worked and re-invented in different eras. And they explore its particular importance in the last three decades in British politics, highlighting its growing importance as a vehicle for an antithetical characterisation of the UK’s past and future to conventional ideas about the integral importance of the European Union to British prospects. They highlight the stirrings of this manner of thinking during the Thatcher years, its coalescence within a wider Anglo-American community in the 1990s, and its subsequent influence over leading campaigners for Brexit. They draw lessons from this account for wider debates about how the Anglosphere might be conceptualised and interpreted.

Aid Refugee Chinese Intellectuals, Inc. and the Political Uses of Humanitarian Relief, 1952-1962 援助中国知识人士协会与难民援助的政治作用, 1952-1962

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeline Y. Hsu
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Special Relationship ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Christian Leader ◽  
Migration Flows ◽  
Chinese Intellectuals ◽  
Leadership Class ◽  
China Lobby

This paper examines the operations of Aid Refugee Chinese Intellectuals (arci). It argues that arci’s project failed in ways that illuminate the politicized, symbolic operations of refugee relief and the difficulties of manipulating mid-twentieth century migration flows, particularly of Asians. arci’s challenges included registering too many, poorly qualified refugees for assistance rather than a useful “leadership” class; the limited willingness of the Nationalist regime to accept even well-educated new residents into the struggling economy of its tightly controlled political base; dependence on the State Department for funding and the imposition of its priorities onto arci’s programs; and the preferences and capacities of arci registrants in forging their own paths. These problems illuminate the complicated, codependency of the “special relationship” between American “China hands” and the China Lobby and the Christian leader of the Nationalists, as well as the politicized and perhaps intractably irreconcilable messiness of managing refugee flows.

Inscribing Siam: The state of documentary and spatial practices

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 1596-1630
Author(s):  
SING SUWANNAKIJ ◽  
SØREN IVARSSON
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Territorial Integration

AbstractThe administrative (Chakri) reforms in Siam which took place around the turn of the twentieth century are probably one of the most studied topics in the history of Thailand. This period is usually described as the time when the royal elite worked to create a Siamese nation-state under the guidance of the absolute monarchy. This transformation encompassed both territorial integration and administrative centralization. Here we offer a new perspective on this transformative period through an analysis of changing documentary and spatial practices in Siam from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, which were one of the most crucial, intrinsic dynamics of state formation. The emphasis is on the mundane practices of documentation—among other spatial-material practices and processes—that produce the effect that the state exists. We show how this new paper regime articulated a standardization of written official documents, the birth of the file as a technology to deal with the avalanche of documents circulating between sections of the burgeoning administration, and the spatial organization that created the office—fields where officials produced and stored documents according to specific regulations. We exemplify this new regime of documentary practices in Bangkok and beyond, with special reference to the paper and spatial works of the provincial gendarmerie.

scholarly journals AGAMA DAN POLITIK DALAM BINGKAI HISTORIS PERKEMBANGAN PEMIKIRAN ISLAM

AHSANA MEDIA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-90
Author(s):  
Abd. Ghoffar
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Power ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
State System ◽  
Central Issue ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Discourses

The tug of war regarding the perception of Islam whether as a series of religious teachings or also at the same time a part of the state system that regulates the political power of the state has actually exposed the surface as a central issue since the end of the nineteenth century and entered the early twentieth century. This perception of Islam is very significant for the development of religious and political discourses which until now are still being discussed. From the discussion of this topic also was born a series of intellectual figures who had filled out the history sheet and carved gold ink through their ideas or concepts about religion and the state that reached the processor of our brain today. Through them we can transfer thoughts so that trans ideas occur. The discussion that is oriented towards Muslim intellectual thinking is very useful for us in order to reformulate our perceptions of religion and politics in order to be more applicable in Islamic and state-of-the-art insight.

Light unto the Nations

2020 ◽  
pp. 157-200
Author(s):  
Adam Sutcliffe
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Jewish State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Century Thought

This chapter focuses on the purpose of the Jews in relation to the potential and meaning of nationhood, in both Zionist and non-Zionist contexts. It talks about Moses Hess, a writer in Germany in the 1860s, who linked a profoundly negative view of the Jews' diasporic role as arch-capitalists to his irenic view of the role of the Jews in his Zionist vision of the future. It explains how a Zionist grappling with the idea of Jewish exemplarity runs through the twentieth-century history of the movement. This chapter also highlights the cultural Zionism of Ahad Ha'am and the political rhetoric of David Ben-Gurion, who repeatedly invoked Isaiah's “light unto the nations” as his vision for the Jewish state. It analyzes the relationship of Jewish exemplarity and purpose to the broader political life of the nation state that became a rich and complicated seam of debate within twentieth century thought.

scholarly journals How Far Will International Economic Integration Go?

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dani Rodrik
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
World Economy ◽  
State System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
Mass Politics ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future

This article speculates about the future of the world economy 100 years from now. It argues that the spread of markets is restricted by the reach of jurisdictional boundaries, and that national sovereignty imposes serious constraints on international economic integration. The political trilemma of the world economy is that international economic integration, the nation-state, and mass politics cannot co-exist. We have to pick two out of three. The article predicts that it will be the nation-state system that disappears, with global federalism taking its place.

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