Periodic Reporting for period 2 - INVISIHIST (Challenging the Liberal World Order from Within: The Invisible History of the United Nations and the Global South)
Período documentado: 2021-08-01 hasta 2023-01-31
What is the problem/issue being addressed?
The majority of member-states of the United Nations identify as members of the Global South. This is a taxonomy that goes beyond a geographical location. It encapsulates how shared agendas led to a sense of solidarity between peoples and states in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The term Global South, rather than Developing World or Third World, is employed in this project to capture both the state, non-state and regional actors who formed part of the movement, not all of whom were located in the Global South. Over time, these actors brought their problems to the UN, in the belief that the organization could provide tangible solutions to global challenges. However, the existing historiography of the UN is largely from the perspective of Western actors, and tends to ignore or downplay the role of Global South actors. These histories enhance the image of the organization as a passive entity and a vehicle for the interests of Western powers such as Britain, France and the United States (US). The liberal world order is presented here as the rules-based system led by the US since 1945 which established an unequal relationship between North and South. This has created the current situation where the UN is broadly misunderstood and the agency of Global South actors has been rendered largely invisible.
The main aim of this project is to reveal and unravel the invisible histories of the UN, transcending the dominant Western perspective to recover the historical agency of Global South actors. The research will investigate how the UN has both facilitated and limited their role in shaping global order from 1945-1981. This will be an important contribution to current debates about UN reform and assessments of its performance, safeguarding against further marginalization of these actors.
Why is it important for society?
This project is important for society for three main reasons. Firstly, it will provide the first truly global history of the biggest and most important international organization in existence. Currently, the history of the UN is only from the Western perspective, we know very little about the objectives, policies and visions of its other members, despite their majority membership since 1960. Until we have a more accurate impression of how the UN changed over time, and what role non-Western members played in its evolution, it is impossible to have informed debates about how to reform the UN or improve its effectiveness.
Secondly, the research will provide insights into how Global South actors both participated in and resisted the liberal international order. This challenges the main impression that the Global South was merely a recipient of the liberal world order, by highlighting how these actors contested its ideas, principles and policies through the UN, but also often adopted and adapted some elements to suit their own agendas. Importantly, the research will show the active role of Global South peoples and states in shaping the world order.
Thirdly, the project exposes histories of states, peoples and issues that remain obscured due to the hierarchies of power and processes of inclusion and exclusion with which the UN functions. This will shed light on processes of sovereignty and self-determination, the quest for economic sovereignty and human rights, investigating how these issues were both developed and limited by the UN system over time.
What are the overall objectives?
This research project puts the Global South at the center of analyses of the UN and aims to show how Global South actors shaped global order by changing the structure and nature of the UN as they advanced their agenda to make the North-South relationship more equitable. From its inception, Global South actors viewed the UN as a place and a space for the pursuit of the campaign for decolonization, which came to mean more than the acquisition of political sovereignty but was gradually expanded to address a wider range of North-South economic, political and social injustices. As these actors proliferated, they developed the UN’s competencies, functions and agency in a range of areas which presented a challenge to the traditional dominance of the Western powers.
The project traces the invisible history within and between the Global South and the UN, examining the successes and discontents of the movement, tracing the genealogies of issues that did not become part of the formal agenda and analyzing the role of lesser-known actors who continued to be disenfranchised by the evolution of South-South dynamics. In challenging the liberal world order, Global South actors performed a nuanced agency which produced its own order with positive and negative results.
The majority of member-states of the United Nations identify as members of the Global South. This is a taxonomy that goes beyond a geographical location. It encapsulates how shared agendas led to a sense of solidarity between peoples and states in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The term Global South, rather than Developing World or Third World, is employed in this project to capture both the state, non-state and regional actors who formed part of the movement, not all of whom were located in the Global South. Over time, these actors brought their problems to the UN, in the belief that the organization could provide tangible solutions to global challenges. However, the existing historiography of the UN is largely from the perspective of Western actors, and tends to ignore or downplay the role of Global South actors. These histories enhance the image of the organization as a passive entity and a vehicle for the interests of Western powers such as Britain, France and the United States (US). The liberal world order is presented here as the rules-based system led by the US since 1945 which established an unequal relationship between North and South. This has created the current situation where the UN is broadly misunderstood and the agency of Global South actors has been rendered largely invisible.
The main aim of this project is to reveal and unravel the invisible histories of the UN, transcending the dominant Western perspective to recover the historical agency of Global South actors. The research will investigate how the UN has both facilitated and limited their role in shaping global order from 1945-1981. This will be an important contribution to current debates about UN reform and assessments of its performance, safeguarding against further marginalization of these actors.
Why is it important for society?
This project is important for society for three main reasons. Firstly, it will provide the first truly global history of the biggest and most important international organization in existence. Currently, the history of the UN is only from the Western perspective, we know very little about the objectives, policies and visions of its other members, despite their majority membership since 1960. Until we have a more accurate impression of how the UN changed over time, and what role non-Western members played in its evolution, it is impossible to have informed debates about how to reform the UN or improve its effectiveness.
Secondly, the research will provide insights into how Global South actors both participated in and resisted the liberal international order. This challenges the main impression that the Global South was merely a recipient of the liberal world order, by highlighting how these actors contested its ideas, principles and policies through the UN, but also often adopted and adapted some elements to suit their own agendas. Importantly, the research will show the active role of Global South peoples and states in shaping the world order.
Thirdly, the project exposes histories of states, peoples and issues that remain obscured due to the hierarchies of power and processes of inclusion and exclusion with which the UN functions. This will shed light on processes of sovereignty and self-determination, the quest for economic sovereignty and human rights, investigating how these issues were both developed and limited by the UN system over time.
What are the overall objectives?
This research project puts the Global South at the center of analyses of the UN and aims to show how Global South actors shaped global order by changing the structure and nature of the UN as they advanced their agenda to make the North-South relationship more equitable. From its inception, Global South actors viewed the UN as a place and a space for the pursuit of the campaign for decolonization, which came to mean more than the acquisition of political sovereignty but was gradually expanded to address a wider range of North-South economic, political and social injustices. As these actors proliferated, they developed the UN’s competencies, functions and agency in a range of areas which presented a challenge to the traditional dominance of the Western powers.
The project traces the invisible history within and between the Global South and the UN, examining the successes and discontents of the movement, tracing the genealogies of issues that did not become part of the formal agenda and analyzing the role of lesser-known actors who continued to be disenfranchised by the evolution of South-South dynamics. In challenging the liberal world order, Global South actors performed a nuanced agency which produced its own order with positive and negative results.
Work Period: February 2020-February 2021
The project began in February 2020. During this time, the PI worked on the details of the work packages and advertised the PhD and Postdoc positions. The PI further defined the individual research projects within INVISIHIST to ensure they were both unique but also integrated together.
For their own project (Work Package 1), the PI conducted the preliminary research for the project and set the outlines and work plans. In May 2020, the PI went on maternity leave until October 2020. At that point, interviews were held for the PhDs and Postdoc and the team began officially in February 2021.
Up to that point, the PI continued to work on her own research project and began to develop some of the initial outputs in the form of articles.
The project began in February 2020. During this time, the PI worked on the details of the work packages and advertised the PhD and Postdoc positions. The PI further defined the individual research projects within INVISIHIST to ensure they were both unique but also integrated together.
For their own project (Work Package 1), the PI conducted the preliminary research for the project and set the outlines and work plans. In May 2020, the PI went on maternity leave until October 2020. At that point, interviews were held for the PhDs and Postdoc and the team began officially in February 2021.
Up to that point, the PI continued to work on her own research project and began to develop some of the initial outputs in the form of articles.
This research will transform the historiography by decolonizing existing histories of the UN. It will focus specifically on the committees and systems of the General Assembly and Security Council, including ECOSOC and UNCTAD. While historians have recently renewed their focus on the UN system as a dynamic space for the interactions of state and non-state actors, little significance has been accorded to the role to different types of actors from the Global South. Rather, the history of the UN and its agencies has been mostly portrayed from the national perspectives of Western countries such as Britain, France and the United States. This research will fill the gap in these overlapping lacunas and contribute to four main, intersecting historical fields;
1. Histories of the UN;
2. The UN in ‘new international history’;
3. History of the Global South;
4. History of Decolonization.
1. Histories of the UN;
2. The UN in ‘new international history’;
3. History of the Global South;
4. History of Decolonization.