Antiliberal Internationalism in the Twentieth Century

This book shows how antiliberal discourse, thought, and mobilization have, in defiance of nationalist aims, been significantly shaped and determined in the international sphere, as new collaborations position themselves against the liberal order established after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Despite often drawing inspiration from nationalist movements and ideologies, antiliberalism is a phenomenon that transcends domestic contexts and settings in important ways. This collection of essays charts the many-sided aspects of twentieth-century internationalism and its contemporary developments across the globe. Without excluding well-known European sources of antiliberal internationalism, it decenters the European experience by exploring specific case studies from South and East Asia, the Middle East, the Americas, Africa and Oceania. Moreover, the volume abundantly demonstrates that “liberalism” and “anti-liberalism” cannot be considered as fixed entities, as (anti)liberalism was and is as much defined by its enemies as by its advocates.

This book is intended for scholars and students of International Studies, Intellectual History, Political History, Political Science, European Studies, and Global Studies, as well as for journalists and policymakers interested in contemporary Europe, cosmopolitanism, political polarization, and the traditions of the right and far-right.