What is it about?
Modern international relations have been analyzed with the understanding that its basic unit has been national sovereignty units. This article demonstrates that this did not work in the regions beyond Euro-America in the era of the League of Nations, and that the League came to incorporate horizontal, cooperative intercolonail networks of colonial experts in Asia (and to a lesser extent in Africa) in its operations in its international health operations.
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Why is it important?
Most analyses on modern international relations have been based on the relatively equal, national sovereign units, while recent works demonstrated the need to incorporate empire in this understanding. This article is important on three points. First it stressed the significance of not only the role of imperial polities, but also lateral, horizontal cooperative (intercolonial) networks of colonial experts located in Asia in the formation of modern global governing norms. Second, it demonstrates these actions in Asia was not marginal, but came to define general global governing norms through the League of Nations. Third, this intercolonial nature also defined the norms and operations of the following UN agencies.
Perspectives
Our understanding of the formation of global governance norms and mechanism has been deepen by recent works in international history. There is, however, still little on how this happened in the regions beyond Euro-America. This article (and other works of mine) shows how inter-war intercolonialism in Asia (and Africa to a lesser extent) was not something marginal or exceptional, but came to define the nature of global governing norms in the following UN system.
Dr Tomoko Akami
Australian National University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Imperial polities, intercolonialism, and the shaping of global governing norms: public health expert networks in Asia and the League of Nations Health Organization, 1908–37, Journal of Global History, February 2017, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s1740022816000310.
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