Intervention before interventionism: Contestation, decolonization, and re-constitution in global order

The seminar will provide an overview of the candidate’s book project. This is a book about the ways in which statespeople have re-ordered intervention and non-intervention since the middle of twentieth century; it is concerned primarily with non-Western contestations of Western-dominated order; it analyses institutional change in and through decolonization; and it provides a conceptual roadmap for understanding dilemmas of intervention and non-intervention today, particularly in relation to contestation as it has re-emerged in the twenty-first century. While building upon and conversing with existing literature, the book stands out from previous approaches insofar as it is a mapping of international struggles for re-constitution in the globalization of the society of states. The focus turns to the UN-based organising of Asia, Africa, and Latin America in order to tell us something new about the functions and evolution of core IR concepts like sovereignty and intervention. This is a project that is gaining new political importance in light of issues like Ukraine, the crisis of liberal interventionism, and the proposed multilateral reforms of the BRICS countries in an age of hegemonic transition.

SPEAKER

Patrick Quinton-Brown is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Asia Research Institute in the National University of Singapore. In January 2021 he completed his DPhil in International Relations at the University of Oxford, where he also taught as Junior College Lecturer at University College. His articles have appeared in journals including International Relations, Review of International Studies, and International Affairs. His research interests cover theories of international relations and global governance; the shared intergovernmental identities and global practices of Asia, Africa, and Latin America; and the globalization of international society, with particular reference to the UN.

CHAIR

Christine Henderson is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Singapore Management University. She holds an A.B. in French Studies and government from Smith College, and a PhD in political science from Boston College. She has published extensively on Alexis de Tocqueville, French liberalism, and politics and literature. She is presently working on Tocqueville and gender.