scholarly journals Tracing Southern Cosmopolitanisms: the intersecting networks of Islam, Trade Unions, Gender and Communism, 1945-1965

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 108-139
Author(s):  
Heather Goodall
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
World War ◽  
World War 2 ◽  
Working People ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
The Cold War

At the end of World War 2, there were high hopes across the Indian Ocean for a new world in which the relationships between working people would mean more than the borders which separated them. This paper will explore the fate of the hopes for new worlds, in the decades after 1945, by following the uneven relationships among working class Australians, Indonesians and Indians in the aftermath of an intense political struggle in Australia from 1945 to 1949 in support of Indonesian independence. They had been brought together by intersections between the networks established through colonialism, like trade unions, communism and feminism, with those having much longer histories, like Islam. The men and women in this Australian setting expressed their vision in 1945 for a future of universal and transnational networks across the Indian Ocean which would continue the alliances they had found so fruitful. Today their experiences as well as their hopes might be called cosmopolitanism – they expected that the person-to-person friendships they were forming could be sustained and be able to negotiate the differences between them to achieve common aims. Although these hopes for new futures of universal alliances and collaborations were held passionately in the 1940s, all seem to have died by 1970, diverted by newly independent national trajectories and defeated by the Cold War. Yet many of the relationships persisted far longer than might be expected and their unravelling was not inevitable. This paper will trace the course of a few of the relationships which began in the heat of the campaigns in Australia, 1943 to 1945, in order to identify the continuing common ground as well as the rising tensions which challenged them.

The Impact of the Cold War on the Development of Trade Unionism in Malaya (1948–57)

1992 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leong Yee Fong
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
World War ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Groups

In the aftermath of World War Two, Malaya saw the emergence of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) and its attempt to mobilize labour support against the returning British colonial government. The Pan Malayan General Labour Union (PMGLU), later renamed the Pan Malayan Federation of Trade Union (PMFTU), was established as a front organization to harness multiracial labour support and to work in close liaison with other left-wing political groups. Trade unions that mushroomed after the War were invariably dominated by the PMGLU and used as tools for the realization of communist political objectives in Malaya.

China and the Cold War

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rana Mitter
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
World War ◽  
World War 2 ◽  
War Narrative ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines the role of China in the Cold War. It describes the origins of Cold War in China and the participation of nationalist China in World War 2 and the Cold War, and suggests that China played a pivotal role as the third (albeit shorter) leg of a cold war tripod. The chapter contends that the Cold War era in China is inseparable from the political supremacy Mao Zedong, and highlights the impact of the split between China and the Soviet Union on the role of China in the Cold War. It also argues that the 1972 Sino-United States rapprochement contributed to the fading of China from the Cold War narrative.

The Indian Ocean during the Cold War: Thinking through a Critical Geography

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 524-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Critical Geography ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
The Cold War

Britain and the Cold War, 1945–1990

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Larres
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
World War ◽  
World War 2 ◽  
Nuclear Bomb ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Schuman Plan ◽  
British State ◽  
Global Influence ◽  
Political Decisions

This chapter examines the role of Great Britain in the Cold War. It describes the condition and experiences of Britain from 1945 to 1990 and explores how Britain managed to maintain its global influence during the Cold War, despite its decline. The chapter argues that although Britain was forced to operate within structure of the Cold War, the British state and its leaders were able to make their own political decisions. Examples of these include the war resolution against Argentina to recapture the Falklands Islands in 1982, the decision not to participate in the Schuman Plan negotiations of 1950, and the determination to develop a nuclear bomb shortly after the end of World War 2.

Eastern Europe

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Stöver
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Eastern Bloc ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
World War ◽  
East Central ◽  
World War 2 ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter examines the role and experience of Eastern Europe in the Cold War. It explains that the history of East Central Europe's Cold War began with the gradual dissolution of the anti-Hitler coalition at the end of World War 2 and that the transition to the officially declared Cold War was accompanied by various official statements. The chapter describes how the Cold War escalated with the Eastern bloc uprisings between 1953 and 1956, and argues that the construction of the Berlin Wall represented the main watershed in the history of the Eastern bloc as well as in the evolution of the Cold War.

First Encounters

2020 ◽  
pp. 4-27
Author(s):  
Francine R. Frankel
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Great Power ◽  
British Colonialism ◽  
The World ◽  
Independent States ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Newly Independent States

Nehru’s forceful arguments that Asia would emerge from the retreat of British colonialism with new strength and vitality to become subjects of foreign policy found no place in Washington’s bipolar view of the world at the onset of the Cold War. Kennan’s famous formulation of containment viewed the newly independent states as backward and dependent peoples open to Soviet support and enabling Moscow to put their own puppet regimes in power. In contrast, Nehru assumed that India was destined to become a great power and the pivot around which security problems of Asia and the Indian Ocean would have to be considered. He looked toward China, still engaged in a civil war with the communists, as sharing a common outlook.

Historicizing the Cold War

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akira Iriye
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cold War ◽  
World History ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
World War ◽  
World War 2 ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter discusses the process of historicizing the Cold War. It explains that the Cold War had no influence on major world affairs from the late nineteenth century onward and that, under such a view, the Cold War can only be considered as but a fraction of world history. It argues that if the Cold War is to be historicized, it is important to broaden the perspective and relativize the geopolitical story against the background of many other stories which comprise history. The chapter explores the role or contribution the Cold War in the three sub-periods after World War 2: 1945–70, 1970–90, and 1990 to the present.

Geopolitics and the Cold War

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Warner
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Free Market ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
World War 2 ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Free Market Capitalism ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Market Capitalism

This chapter examines the geopolitical aspect of the Cold War. It discusses the origin of the term “geopolitics,” and investigates how and why relations between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorated so rapidly after the World War 2. The chapter highlights the incompatibilities between the ideologies of the two superpowers, and explains that communism and free-market capitalism are polar opposites. It also argues against the claims about the extent to which the Cold War was based on ideological as opposed to geopolitical factors that persisted throughout the conflict.

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