AHA Session 103
Saturday, January 4, 2025: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
Madison Room (New York Hilton, Second Floor)
Chair:
Denise Y. Ho, Georgetown University
Papers:
Comment:
Benno Weiner, Carnegie Mellon University
Session Abstract
This panel takes “entangled imperialism” as its central subject. It crucially renders East Asia in the early Cold War as the playing field for a matted web of imperial formations that reflected both the lingering effects of the corpses of previous empires in Asia and the competing structures that had heightened significance due to the Cold War. It aims to expand scholarly conversation in two ways: first, to solidify the study of the “afterlives” of empires before the end of WW2 which we contend continued to impact the region despite the rise of new Cold War structures. Second, to posit “entanglement”—distinct from competition or conflict—as an analytical lens to comparatively understand how and why post-WW2 imperial formations could prove durable in the long-term. The beginning of the Cold War did not necessarily make the end of imperial and colonial rule a fait accompli, but instead became entangled with it. While we explore how geopolitical competition enabled and gave momentum to existing processes of hardening state power, we also point towards the shifting effects of imperialisms that were growing in their reach and ambition. While the agents of Chinese and American empires set down the scaffolding for new ways of exerting influence across space, they necessarily had to deal with and were affected by the ruins of past empires which marked an East Asian landscape. They also had to contend with one another, and at times became intertwined with other models of imperial power in their global efforts. We posit that the entanglement between competing and complementary modes of power, as well as recognition of the debris of the past, allowed for novel imperialisms after WW2. This panel aims to provoke questions on what qualities allowed for durable imperial formation amidst the eroding foundation of past structures of power in the decolonizing moments of the early Cold War, which we suggest was the crucial result of entanglement between past and present, corpses and the living.
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