Vocabularies of self-determination in 1919: The co-constitution of race and gender in international law

Dunstan, S. C. (2023) Vocabularies of self-determination in 1919: The co-constitution of race and gender in international law. In: Jackson, P., Mulligan, W. and Sluga, G. (eds.) Peacemaking and International Order after the First World War. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, pp. 37-64. ISBN 9781108830508 (doi: 10.1017/9781108907750.003)

Abstract

Throughout the twentieth century, the principle of ’self-determination’ had many lives – as political catch-phrase, legal possibility and a justifying logic of world order. In the aftermath of the First World War, it was a principle that suffused the treaty discussions of the Paris peace conference, and loomed large in the framing of the plebiscites, as well as the League of Nations mandate system. This was not least because it animated the claims of numerous nationalist and anti-imperialist activists agitating for increased rights and freedoms in this moment. This chapter explores how the notion of self-determination, and related ideas around national belonging, race and gender, manifested in this 1919 moment in the promises of the Allied leaders, in the claims-making of non-state actors and in the discussions of legal professionals. In so doing it shows how we can understand particular visions of international law in this period as part of a much larger political and cultural conversation about the relationship between the state and national, racial and gendered belonging.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Additional Information: eISBN - 9781108907750
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Dunstan, Dr Sarah
• Authors: Dunstan, S. C.
• Subjects: D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D204 Modern History
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > History
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• ISBN: 9781108830508

Copyright Holders

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<fragment>Copyright: © Cambridge University Press & Assessment 2023</fragment>
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• First Published: First published in Peacemaking and International Order after the First World War: 37-64
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

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