Summary: Event recording from 07/02/2017 at King's College London. The Geopolitics of American Empire: A view from the 1940s Speaker: Dr Or Rosenboim, University of Cambridge Did visions of empire shape the rise of the United States to world power? In this presentation, Or Rosenboim discusses the history of Geopolitics in the United States and sheds light on two main figures in the field: Owen Lattimore and Nicholas J. Spykman. In the 1940s, both promoted the study of Geopolitics as central to international relations in the age of the end of empire. The paper shows how they employed geopolitical concepts to promote opposed versions of world order, in which the United States helps eradicate imperialism, or replaces Europe as the leading world empire. Or Rosenboim’s research is set in the intersection of International Relations and History. Her published work examines the history of international thought in the twentieth century, especially around the history of geopolitics, cosmopolitanism, federalism and democracy theory in Britain and the United States. She is also interested in the relationship between intellectual history and international theory. Recently, she has been writing on Italian international and geopolitical thought in the twentieth century. Her book, The emergence of globalism: Competing Visions of World Order in Britain and the United States, 1939-1950, will be published by Princeton University Press in 2017. The book is based on her doctoral research, that was awarded the Lisa Smirl prize for best dissertation (Department of Politics, Cambridge University) and co-awarded the Raymond Aron Prize 2014. For more information, visit http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/warstudies/events/eventsrecords/rosenboim.aspx.
