What the Field Stands to Lose

Abstract

The pandemic of 2020 brings the field of American foreign relations, or the United States and the World, or the global history of international relations, to an important crossroads. The pandemic will have a direct impact on the ongoing trend in the field toward transnational (read: multilingual, multi-archival, globe-trotting) research. Closed borders and heightened tensions will limit access to archives, conference interactions, and routine scholarly exchanges. At the same time, caregiving responsibilities and challenging economic conditions for both universities and individual households will determine whose research is most detrimentally affected by COVID-19 shutdowns, and in many cases, limit participation by some of the very same groups whose voices SHAFR has been seeking to amplify in its push for diversity. Access to archives limited by closed borders, travel warnings, and rising international tensions has the potential to challenge the “transnational turn” in the history of international relations and American encounters with...