(Source: Universiteit Leiden)
A call for papers for a conference on postcolonial challenges by the countries of the global south in their relation with the liberal world order can be found below.
Keynote Speaker: Vijay Prashad (Trinity
College, Connecticut)
The United Nations is the central node in
the system of global governance, organizing and managing the interaction and
cooperation of the organs and specialized agencies of the institution with
NGOs, corporate and civil society actors and increasingly, the global public.
Despite the important role of the UN in this nexus, existing histories of the
organization place an emphasis on the role of Western actors and often overlook
the agency of countries from the Global South. This workshop will investigate
how individuals, organizations, civil society actors and states from the Global
South impacted upon the UN and the system of global governance in the latter
half of the 20thcentury as they expanded the meaning of
decolonization to address a range of North/South inequalities.
Significance of workshop:
From the moment of its inception, counties
from the Global South began to organize in formal and informal groups around
specific issues at the UN, an organization that was perceived as being full of
promise for the construction of a more equitable and just world order. Through
discussions and public debates in the General Assembly, and in the corridors
and working groups of the UN, the campaign for decolonization became the
primary focus of countries from Africa and Asia. As more countries became
independent, the decolonization movement shifted from the assertion of
sovereignty and the right to self-determination, to a host of other claims for
a broad range of social, economic and political rights. Alongside Latin American
countries and smaller neutral nations, the African and Asian groups and the
Afro-Asian bloc cooperated at the UN on a range of issues from economic
development to human rights, to the struggle against apartheid. The workshop
seeks to analyze this cooperation to trace the way this dynamic activity
changed the UN and impacted upon the various issues around which the Global
South groups came together through issue based alliances and solidarity
networks.
In recent years the historical role of
international organizations has been the subject of increased attention from
historians seeking to reassess their role in shaping the global order. Leading
historians from Mark Mazower to Matthew Connolly have encouraged scholars to
‘take off the Cold War lens’ in analyzing international institutions and their
impact on local, national and international politics. Others, such as Susan
Pedersen have reminded us about the long-term significance of organizations in
functioning as networked platforms and agents of international change. Drawing
on this scholarship, the workshop will invite proposals which take innovative
views of the UN as a space for international and transnational cooperation, a
dynamic forum which reveals interactions between the Global South and the West
as the latter tried to challenge the liberal world order leading to the
resurgence of UN activism from 1990-2000.
This workshop will consider a variety of
contributions using sources from empirical research while also taking account
of interdisciplinary reflections on the historical role of international
organizations from a transnational and global perspective. Topics may include:
- The emergence of ‘Third-Worldism’;
- How decolonization interacted with the Cold War at the UN;
- The evolution of the Afro-Asian Bloc and cooperation between
the African and Asian groups;
- Economic Development, NIEO, UNCTAD, etc.;
- The response of the major powers to Global South demands for
reform;
- The role of Global South countries in the campaign for human
rights;
- The dynamism of Latin American states at the UN;
- The role of UN officials and the UN Secretariat;
- The participation of non-state actors and NGOs;
- The influence of officials from the Global South across these
dimensions;
- The formation and import of transnational groups such as the
G77 and the Non-Aligned movement;
- South-South and South-Soviet interactions;
- The resuscitation of the UN in 1990.
The workshop will take place from 8-9 May
with a Keynote Lecture from Vijay Prashad during the afternoon of 8 May
followed by a selection of workshop panels on 9 May. Adopting a different
format in order to allow for more panels, there will be no formal presentations
of work but a commentator will give a brief reflection of the papers to
kick-off each panel. In this way it is hope that all participants will read the
papers and a deep discussion will follow.
Submission of abstracts
Please send an abstract of max. 500 words
and a short CV to the following email address: a.m.omalley@hum.leidenuniv.nl by 1 January 2018. Authors will be notified regarding the
acceptance of their contribution by 31 January. Invited speakers will be
expected to submit a draft paper 1 month prior to the event, which will be
circulated among all other participants. Some funding will be available for
travel and accommodation.
Contact Info:
Alanna O'Malley
Leiden University, The Netherlands.
Contact Email:
(Source: H-Net)
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