Professor Alex Colás's Inaugural Lecture - The Internationalist Disposition: Resources Against a Reactionary World
When:
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Venue:
Birkbeck Clore Management Centre
In a world characterised by social reaction, political involution, and impunity in the face of humanitarian crimes, advocating for internationalism today may seem a futile exercise. This lecture takes up the challenge, surveying diverse historical experiences of internationalism over the past 150 years, and outlining an internationalist disposition that offers a distinctive analysis of international politics, past and present.
I argue that competing expressions of internationalism – liberal, radical, imperial – have always been in conflict and competition, both contributing toward and responding to key modern world-historical conjunctures. An internationalist disposition is acquired through political education and mobilised collectively in very different contexts – often in unsatisfactory, weak or marginal ways. It is not an intrinsic quality of this or that class, ideological tendency, cultural community or political organisation. There are, however, some characteristics to the internationalist disposition, its present expressions and historical trajectory that make it an indispensable component of any democratic response to the current global crisis.
Biography
Alejandro (Alex) Colás joined Birkbeck from Sussex University in 2003 and is Professor of International Relations. He directs the MSc in International Security and Global Governance and teaches courses on Global Politics, Governance and Security and Transformations in Global Politics. He is a member of the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Prize Committee, and his most recent book is Capitalism and the Sea: The Maritime Factor in the Making of the Modern World, co-authored with Liam Campling and published by Verso.
This inaugural lecture will be followed by a drinks reception in the Clore foyer.
Contact name: Chris Fray
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