After the Second World War, national self-determination became a recognized international norm, yet it only extended to former colonies. Groups within postcolonial states that made alternative sovereign claims were disregarded or actively suppressed. Foregrounding little-known regions in South Asia and Southern Africa and the networks that connected them to global politics, this presentation will discuss the unfinished and improvised ways that the state-centric international system replaced empire, which left some claims of sovereignty perpetually awaiting recognition.
Lydia Walker is an Assistant Professor of History and the Myers Chair of Global Military History at The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on the comparative history of decolonization, including the history of military interventions and insurgencies in Asia and Africa. Her book States-in-Waiting: A Counternarrative of Global Decolonization was published by Cambridge University Press in 2024.
Part of our fall 2024 lecture series, "Legacies of Colonialism."