Welcome
It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the Department of International History Blog. This Blog provides an open platform which the Department can engage a wide audience on broad themes within the realm of international history. By combining historical analysis and attention to contemporary global affairs, we hope to flesh out the continuities and complexities that continue to shape the world around us. It provides scholars at many levels, from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, with an opportunity to engage with a broader audience and to showcase current work.
Historical research and perspective is often lacking in discussion of contemporary problems, and in the way governments approach policymaking. The need to understand the historical dimension to our current concerns and predicaments will only increase in the coming years as policymakers look for fresh perspectives and answers to ongoing challenges. Whether it is the the rise of China; US foreign policy; the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear programme; the impact of Brexit on Europe and and the UK; armed conflict in the Middle East; Russia’s approach in world affairs; the affects of a global pandemic; or famine and conflict in Africa, this Blog encourages the application of history to major issues in international affairs.
I hope readers find the Blog useful and enlightening, and that they also will contribute to the discussions and analyses that it hopes to generate.
Professor Piers Ludlow
Head of Department
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Current Editors
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Past Editors
Jonathan Franco (July 2022 – March 2024)
Jonathan Franco is a PhD candidate at the Department of International History, LSE. His PhD project explores the different peacemaking and peacekeeping strategies employed by the United Nations vis-à-vis the Arab-Israeli Conflict, and the Arab and Israeli responses to these efforts.
Omar Nasr (Sep 2022 – March 2024)
Omar Nasr is a PhD candidate in International History at the LSE, supervised by Dr. David Motadel and Prof. Marc David Baer. His doctoral thesis, “The British Empire and Islam in the Second World War”, explores Britain‘s Islam-related policies during the Second World War.
Linkedin / Twitter: @omartareknasr
Medha Bhattacharya (from Sep 2020 – July 2022)
Medha Bhattacharya is a PhD candidate at the Department of International History, LSE. Her doctoral thesis attempts to explore the Hindi and Bengali language movements which flourished in South Asia around the time of independence.
Charlotte Eaton (from Sep 2020 – July 2022)
Charlotte Eaton is a PhD candidate at the Department of International History, LSE. Her doctoral project explores the Spanish Civil War in Latin America.
Twitter: @CharlotteREaton
Grant Golub (from Sep 2020 – July 2022)
Grant Golub is a PhD candidate at the Department of International History, LSE. His doctoral research focuses on the American Statesman Henry L. Stimson and his tenure as the secretary of war during the Second World War
Twitter: @ghgolub
Rishika Yadav (from Sep 2019 – Sep 2020)
Rishika Yadav is a PhD candidate at the Department of International History, LSE. Her doctoral thesis focuses on reconstructing the histories of ‘Coloured’ (‘mixed-race’), Indian, and Malay soldiers from the Union of South Africa who participated in the Second World War.
Twitter: @rishikayadav_
Katherine Arnold (from Jan 2019 – Aug 2020)
Katherine Arnold is a PhD candidate at the Department of International History, LSE. Her doctoral thesis investigates the influence of German naturalists in the British Empire, specifically the commercial aspects of natural history collecting in southern Africa.
Twitter: @karnold01
Thomas Wilkinson (from Jan 2019 – Aug 2019)
Tom Wilkinson is a PhD candidate at the Department of International History at the LSE. His doctoral research investigates state mobilisations of youth in colonial and early post-colonial India.
Twitter: @TomWilk0
Judith Jacob (from April 2017 – Dec 2018)
Judith Jacob is a PhD candidate at the Department of International History, LSE. Her doctoral thesis traces the ideological developments of militant Islamist groups in post-colonial Indonesia.
Twitter: @judithpjacob
Cees Heere (from January 2017 – March 2017)
Cees Heere completed his doctoral studies at LSE in 2017. His doctoral project examined the rise of Japan and explored how the emergence of an Asian great power remade the political landscape of East Asia and the Pacific, forcing Britain and its Dominions to rethink their views on race, civilisation, and the rise of Asia.
Twitter: @CeesHeere
Ranj Alaaldin (from Feb 2015 – Sep 2015)
Ranj Alaaldin completed his doctoral studies at LSE in 2015. His doctoral project focused on social movements and sub-national identities, with a particular emphasis on Iraq’s Shia community and the religious establishment in Najaf.
Twitter: @RanjAlaaldin