Daniel Laqua

Transnational intellectual cooperation, the League of Nations, and the problem of order.

This article examines the political and cultural contexts of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation and the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation. These two League of Nations bodies were charged with fostering international understanding through the promotion of educational, scientific, and cultural exchange. Whereas previous studies have revealed the institutional and diplomatic processes that shaped these bodies, the present article considers their intellectual genealogies and trajectories. Adopting a transnational perspective, it argues that the multi-layered quest for order is central to understanding intellectual cooperation in the interwar years. This concern was reflected in the role of cultural relations within the post-war order, and in the aim of strengthening intellectuals’ position in the social order (both through legal instruments and through new tools for ‘intellectual labour’).

The age of internationalism and Belgium, 1880–1930: Peace, progress and prestige

This study investigates internationalism through the prism of a small European country. It explores an age in which many groups and communities – from socialists to scientists – organised themselves across national borders. Belgium was a major hub for transnational movements. By taking this small and yet significant European country as a focal point, the book critically examines major historical issues, including nationalism, colonial expansion, political activism and international relations. A main aim is to reveal the multifarious and sometimes contradictory nature of internationalism. The Belgian case shows how within one particular country, different forms of internationalism sometimes clashed and sometimes converged. The book is organised around political movements and intellectual currents that had a strong presence in Belgium. Each of the main chapters is dedicated to a key theme in European history: nationhood, empire, the relationship between church and state, political and social equality, peace, and universalism. The timeframe ranges from the fin de siecle to the interwar years. It thus covers the rise of international associations before the First World War, the impact of the conflagration of 1914, and the emergence of new actors such as the League of Nations.

Democratic Politics and the League of Nations: The Labour and Socialist International as a Protagonist of Interwar Internationalism

The Labour and Socialist International (LSI) was a major vehicle for transnational socialist cooperation during the interwar years and thus seemed to continue the traditions of socialist internationalism. In the realm of international relations, however, it championed key tenets of liberal internationalism. The LSI supported the idea of a League of Nations and embraced the notion of a world order based upon democratic nation-states. While it criticised some aspects of the international system, its overall emphasis was on reform rather than revolution. The article sheds light on the wider phenomenon of interwar internationalism by tracing the LSIs relationship with the League of Nations, with the politics of peace more generally and with the competing internationalism of the communists.

The Tensions of Internationalism: Transnational Anti-Slavery in the 1880s and 1890s

In 1888 Cardinal Lavigerie, the Archbishop of Algiers and Carthage, launched his ‘anti-slavery crusade’. Drawing attention to slave raids in Africa and to the East African slave trade, this initiative resulted in the foundation of several new anti-slavery associations. Many of them maintained close connections to Catholic politics and missionaries, yet also co-operated with two older – and predominantly Protestant – groups in Britain: the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (BFAS) and the Aborigines’ Protection Society (APS). By stressing how anti-slavery associations collaborated through international congresses and periodicals, the article traces the emergence of a new anti-slavery internationalism in the 1880s and 1890s. It discusses the transnational context of such activism and highlights the shared language developed by its protagonists. However, the timing of these efforts makes its necessary to consider the relationship between humanitarianism and the ‘new imperialism’ of this period – a connection that was reflected in diplomatic events such as the Brussels Conference of 1889–90. Anti-slavery discourse fed into notions of a ‘civilising mission’ which seemed to legitimise imperial expansion. Portrayals that contrasted the actions of Western powers with those of so-called ‘Arab’ slave-traders (a term which Europeans also applied to African Muslims) were one element of this discourse.

Beyond the Metropolis: French and Belgian Symbolists between the Region and the Republic of Letters

In 1892, the editors of the journal La Jeune Belgique – the bell-ringer of Belgian modernism –made a claim that seemingly contradicted the publication’s central role in the country’s so-called ‘literary renaissance’.1 They asserted that their periodical had ‘never promoted a national literature, that is to say, “Belgian literature”’.2 Instead, they portrayed themselves as French writers, comparable to authors in Brittany and the South of France:

Belgian exiles, the British and the Great War: the Birtley Belgians of Elisabethville

Abstract Located in Birtley, County Durham, the gated community of Elisabethville housed several thousand Belgians from 1916 until the aftermath of the Great War. Most residents were conscripted Belgian soldiers who constituted the workforce at the nearby National Projectile Factory. This article focuses on the complex relationship between the ‘Birtley Belgians’ and their host population. It thus covers issues such as wartime charity, Anglo-Belgian leisure-time interactions as well as debates about the exiles’ moral and socio-economic impact. Moreover, the case of Elisabethville sheds light on several wider issues, from war-related displacement to the intersections between home front and battle front.

Freethinkers, anarchists and Francisco Ferrer: the making of a transnational solidarity campaign

This article examines the transnational solidarity campaign for Francisco Ferrer, the Catalan anarchist and educator who was sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in Barcelonas ‘Tragic Week’ of 1909. The international scale of the protests against Ferrers execution was much remarked upon by his contemporaries. While historians have examined both the nature of demonstrations in support of Ferrer and the way in which he was commemorated, they have mostly focused on specific national contexts. This article takes a different approach: it investigates the transnational dimensions of the campaign. It places the protests within the framework of the ‘culture wars’ surrounding church–state relations. These cleavages were inherently transnational, and the structures developed by the international freethought movement, for example, played a significant role in sustaining the Ferrer campaign. The article also draws attention to other factors that shaped the protests and transcended national categories: from widespread images of Spanish ‘despotism’ to the way in which a foreign case could be adopted for domestic political mobilisation.

Internationalism and Nationalism in the League of Nations’ Work for Intellectual Cooperation

How did intellectuals and politicians confirm or reinforce national categories, even when they ostensibly promoted visions of an international community? The chapter addresses this question through a case study of the League of Nations’ mechanisms for intellectual cooperation. After a brief discussion of institutional aspects, namely the establishment of League-affiliated committees and institutes in the 1920s, the article focuses on the interplay of transnational and national practices. National actors—for instance intellectuals and organisations from Central and Eastern Europe—targeted the League bodies, evoking both cultural internationalism and national interests. Furthermore, nationhood was projected at international congresses—sometimes openly, sometimes in more subtle terms—with the pronouncements of delegates from Fascist Italy providing an interesting case in point. Finally, the chapter discusses how individuals sought to reconcile the multi-layered nature of their activities; to this end, it considers several figures who were involved in the League’s efforts to foster a “societe des esprits.”