Internationalist Policy Research Articles

Internationalism of the Post-Cold War World: Clinton’s Foreign Policy for the Global Age

The end of the Cold War prompted a critical reassessment of America’s global role, particularly during the post-Cold War era led by the Clinton administration. Faced with a shifting geopolitical landscape, President Bill Clinton addressed challenges and opportunities, seeking to define America’s role in this transformed international arena. As the bipolar structure of the Cold War dissolved, geo-economics took precedence over geopolitics. The ‘end of history’ narrative signaled a departure from traditional boundaries, and Clinton grappled with the choice of maintaining leadership through global engagement and internationalism. This study analyzes Clinton’s foreign policy throughout his presidency, emphasizing key issues like terrorism and the Balkans. It explores how perceptions of American decline, both economically and militarily, influenced internationalist policies. Additionally, it delves into the impact of conceptual frameworks such as ‘democratic peace,’ ‘unipolar moment,’ and ‘soft power’ on Clinton’s decisions. Drawing on primary sources and influential literature, the research suggests that Clinton’s foreign policy represented a strategic blend of internationalism and pragmatism, addressing the complexities of the post-Cold War world. To conclude, this research contributes to understanding how the end of the Cold War reshaped the global geopolitical landscape and explores the ideological underpinnings guiding the United States in the post-Cold War international arena. Received: 25 December 2023 / Accepted: 25 February 2024 / Published: 23 April 2024

Round Table: A ‘Musical League of Nations’? Music Institutions and the Politics of Internationalism between the Wars

This round table grew out of two gatherings in 2018–19 that endeavoured to bring musicologists into dialogue with recent revisions in the history of international relations.1 Our specific focus was the interwar period, more often discussed in terms of nationalism – or perhaps at best transnationalism – than within the context of internationalism, a principle that lay behind the foundation of elite governmental organizations such as the League of Nations, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization and others. As the historians Glenda Sluga and Patricia Clavin have shown, the construction of objects of global governance by these organizations ran alongside a broader sweep of non-governmental groupings that forwarded the interests of indigenous, working-class, anti-colonialist, anti-slavery and feminist causes.2 What role or roles did music play in these contexts? The case studies that follow illustrate the far-reaching implications of internationalist policies for musical institutions, groups and individuals.

Entegrasyondan Asimilasyona ve Zorunlu Göçe: Bulgaristan Komünist Partisi’nin Türk Azınlık Siyasetinin Bir Değerlendirmesi

Minority regulations in Bulgaria from the communist takeover to the end of the Stalinist era were shaped under the influence of socialist internationalist policies, which envisaged the preservation of ethnic and cultural differences for generating class solidarity among the Bulgarian citizens. However, in practice, the constitutional safeguards and promises given to them were often ignored by the state for the sake of constructing a modern socialist society. The discrimination increased further during the post-Stalinist years in parallel with the regime’s ideological shift away from communist orthodoxy towards nationalism. The statesponsored discriminatory policies had far-reaching consequences for the Turks, the largest and most culturally aware of all ethnic minorities. Perceived as an alien element of the Bulgarian society, throughout the entire socialist period, Turkish minority was subjected to integrationist/assimilationist policies and forcibly expelled from the country at times when these policies did not produce the desired results. This article focuses on the discriminatory policies and practices forced upon the Turkish minority by the Bulgarian Communist Party during the era of state socialism, and intends to inquire into their results.

Soviet-Cuban relations after the Caribbean crisis, the collapse of détente and lessons for the future

The results of the Caribbean crisis in the domestic and foreign literature have rarely been covered from the point of view of the Soviet-Cuban relations that influenced the internationalist policy of Cuba in Africa in the 1970s. The author analyzes: the degree of independence of Cuba’s policy in Africa, the participation of the USSR in it and the fairness of accusations brought by Washington. The results of the analysis show that deploying of Cuban “volunteers” in Angola and then in Ethiopia was not initiated by the USSR, which aimed at maintaining détente in relations with the West. Moreover, new deterioration of relations with Cuba amid escalating Chinese-Soviet tensions, increasing centrifugal tendencies in the “socialist commonwealth” and emergence of “Eurocommunism” threatened to further weaken the “world system of socialism” and erode the ideological foundations of Marxism-Leninism. By analyzing Cuba’s internationalist activity in Africa, the author has been able to draw some conclusions about its implications for the international communist movement and its influence on the balance of power in the world before perestroika policy began in the Soviet Union. The end of détente policy did not allow the USSR to redirect the resources released from the arms race to improving the living conditions of the Soviet people. Cuban revolutionary activity contributed to fragmentation of the formerly united “upfront antiimperialist forces.” The weakening of the ideological foundations of “real socialism” was an additional factor that prompted the Soviet leadership, represented by Mikhail Gorbachev, to begin a policy of perestroika. Cuba’s ‘progress’ in Africa contributed to consolidation of Cuban society around the policy of the Cuban Communist Party, which, in turn, helped it to withstand the difficulties of the “peculiar period of peace” in the early 1990s.

‘Beauty Has Ever a Healing Touch’: Visible Internationalism at the 1927 Exhibition of Flemish and Belgian Art in London

This article examines the Exhibition of Flemish and Belgian Art, 1300 to 1900, which was hosted by the London Royal Academy in 1927. Based on materials from multiple archives, it demonstrates that this event showcased both artefacts and the internationalist policies that had led to their preservation and display. This exhibition constitutes a leading example of a new kind of political performance, which expanded after 1945 and still affects international gatherings and cultural diplomacy to this day.

Internationalist U.S. Foreign Policy and Elite Consensus

ABSTRACT U.S. foreign policy proposals are more likely to be enacted than other items before government and more likely to reflect the views of the affluent public than the middle class. We assess these patterns. Internationalist policies, such as foreign aid, international involvement, and trade agreements, draw support from think tanks and the affluent and are especially likely to pass. In line with populist critiques, Washington expands its international entanglements despite less support from the American middle class.

On Inexactitude in Decolonization

Abstract This essay extends themes in Adom Getachew's Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination (2019) by introducing Iran as a mediating element in Cold War worldmaking. It recovers the story of Pahlavi Iran's diplomatic efforts during the Sixth Special of the United Nation General Assembly, which resulted in the declaration of the New International Economic Order. Getachew's book provides a framework to interpret these diplomatic efforts with greater precision. The same framework explains the Islamic Republic's internationalist policies in the 1980s. Worldmaking after Empire is less equipped, however, to explain the popular revolution separating different modes of Iranian statecraft between the 1970s and 1980s. This observation reveals the limits of the book's methodological approach—namely, its overemphasis on elites and its overinvestment in exactitude. These limits invite a revised approach to writing histories of anticolonial worldmaking. An alternate approach focuses on statecraft (exactitude) and popular politics (inexactitude) at once, echoing the simultaneous affi rmation of nation building and worldmaking in Getachew's theory of decolonization.

‘Mucho malo for fascisti’: Languages and Transnational Soldiers in the Spanish Civil War

This article explores the linguistic experiences of transnational soldiers, using the Spanish Civil War as a case study. It argues that communication difficulties provoked by linguistic diversity within the Republican war effort and particularly within the International Brigades, caused the high command to move from a utopian, internationalist policy to a more pragmatic approach. The article evaluates the role played by language intermediaries in this evolving policy and in the wider Republican war effort. Finally, it argues that soldiers grassroots experiences of language contact forged new linguistic forms which underlined a strong sense of shared purpose and identity.

The Aesthetics of Internationalism: Culture and Politics on Display at the 1935–1936 International Exhibition of Chinese Art

This article examines the 1935–1936 International Exhibition of Chinese Art in London, “the largest Chinese cultural event ever mounted,” and the first to be organized jointly by both the British and the Chinese governments. By analyzing this exhibition at multiple stages (from its conception, to the selection, transportation, and display of the artifacts, to their return to the owners), this study demonstrates that this event was a staged spectacle of internationalism, one that celebrated not only Chinese art but also the peoples and the internationalist policies that had led to their display. As such, it represents an important chapter in the history of internationalism, of China’s place in the international arena, and of the relationship between politics and aesthetics in the twentieth century.

The Commission for Africa: results and prospects for the West's Africa policy

This article evaluates Western, and particularly British, policy towards Africa in the wake of the 2005 Commission for Africa, and considers what it tells us about the character of liberal internationalist policy towards the continent. The article reviews the Commission's report, Our Common Interest, and argues that it adheres in important respects to a ‘liberal bargain’ which has been at the heart of wider donor policy for some time. However, it goes on to argue that the kind of historical leap forward envisaged for Africa has strong echoes in nineteenth-century Western liberal forays into the continent. Yet there are lessons to be learned, and historical legacies to be confronted, from this earlier encounter. These come to the fore in the issue of governance and the difficult political issues that need to be confronted if the Commission's aims are to be realised.

In the Name of the International: The Supreme Court of Canada and the Internationalist Transformation of Canadian Private International Law

SummaryThis article discusses four judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada that transformed private international law in Canada and represent a striking episode in the internationalization of law — a form of judicial activism in the name of the international. It is argued that these cases evidence a mode of internationalization by internationalist policy consciousness that is distinct from, although often complementary to, internationalization via the mechanism of international treaties or changes in customary international law. The key features of this approach suggest some resemblances to the vision found in the traditions of liberal internationalism, Canadian internationalism, and public international law. The article cautions against several general dangers in the use of this approach in law reform and adjudication and uses two specific doctrinal issues in private international law to demonstrate what a richer policy discourse concerning internationalism would be.

Cuban‐African relations: nationalist roots of an internationalist policy

To understand the type of relationship that Cuba has had with Africa for the past four decades, one must understand what happened on 1 January 1959, a watershed date in Cuban history. On that day after several years of armed struggle, dictator Fulgencio Batista fled, a Revolutionary Government led by Fidel Castro took power and Cuba ceased to be the neo‐colony that it had been for over 56 years.

Anatomy of Mistrust: U.S.-Soviet Relations during the Cold War

The United States and the Soviet Union missed numerous diplomatic opportunities to resolve differences and control the arms race because neither state trusted the other, according to Deborah Welch Larson. In Anatomy of Mistrust, She shows that the goals of Soviet and U.S. leaders were frequently complementary, and an agreement should have been attainable. Lost opportunities contributed to bankruptcy for the Soviet Union, serious damage to the economy of the United States, decreased public support for internationalist policies, and a proliferation of nuclear weapons. Synthesizing different understandings of trust and mistrust from the theoretical traditions of economics, psychology, and game theory, Larson analyzes five cases that might have been turning points in U.S.-Soviet relations: the two-year period following Stalin's death in 1953; Khrushchev's peace offensive from the launching of Sputnik until the U-2 incident; the Kennedy administration; the Nixon-Brezhnev detente; and the Gorbachev period. Larson concludes that leaders in the United States often refused to accept Soviet offers to negotiate because they feared a trap. Mutual trust is necessary, she concludes, although it may not be sufficient, for states to cooperate in managing their security.

Shoulder to Shoulder? The American Federation of Labor, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1924.

How did organized labor in the United States react to the Mexican Revolution, and what was the effect of that reaction? Gregg Andrews shows that Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor significantly helped to shape United States policy toward revolutionary nationalist movements in Latin Between 1910 and 1924 AFL leaders followed a complex logic that led them to support Mexican workers and yet contribute to Mexico's economic dependence on the United States. The interplay between progressive forces within the AFLespecially trade-union Socialistsand American corporatist elements is a principal focus of this revealing study. Gompers's internationalist policies and his efforts to manipulate U.S. officials, investors in Mexico, and other labor elements while they in turn manipulated him, are an important key to understanding the ongoing relationship between the labor movement and actions of the United States in Central America.

Political Realism Revisited

Originating in a debate on political realism with the late Hans Morgenthau, this article purports to reanalyze some basic concepts underlying traditional realism (such as power, security, national interest, international systems) in the light of the fundamental changes in international relations that are indicated by the terms population pressure, resources depletion, environmental destruction, and, last but not least, armament races and nuclear superarmament. In suggesting solutions (an attitude and policy of universalism replacing national and other group parochialism, for instance), I have tried to keep my approach equidistant from a utopianism that would substitute world authority for the nation-state system and from a superrealism that denies the feasibility of any more internationalist policy altogether.

The Roots of Isolationism: a Case Study

Senator Arthur Vandenberg wrote of Pearl Harbor that ‘Isolationism for any realist ended on that day’. For two decades after Pearl Harbor this judgement was generally accepted both by statesmen and by scholars in America. Pre-World War II isolationism, it was felt, had been a policy of blindness which culminated in disaster. In the post-war period, it was generally agreed, America learned from the mistakes of her pre-war isolationism and helped to keep peace and defend her interests by pursuing an internationalist policy of the containment of Communism.