Book presentation by Dr Georgios Giannakopoulos

What happened to international order as empires gave way to nation-states during the late 19th and early 20th century? This book presentation takes Dr Georgios Giannakopoulos' recent book 'The Interpreters: British Internationalism and Empire in Southeastern Europe, 1870–1930' as starting point to explore how diplomats, scholars, journalists and other intermediaries shaped understandings of Southeastern Europe and helped translate knowledge about the region into foreign policy and internationalist projects.

The talk then brings this story into conversation with insights from the book 'The War for Anatolia and the Remaking of International Order', moving between Southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean to explore the transition from empire to a world increasingly organised around nation-states. More broadly, the talk asks how nationalism, internationalism, expertise and older imperial practices interacted in the making — and unmaking — of international order during the turbulent decades around the First World War.

Dr Georgios Giannakopoulos will use this broader set-up to raise broader questions about internationalism, empire-building, the disintegration of empire, and the significance of these developments for the present.

Programme

14:30-15:00: walk-in
15:00-17:00: book presentation
17:00-18:00: drinks