Internationalism, Cosmopolitanism and the Politics of Solidarity

The principle of national self-determination has been a hallmark of anti-imperialist politics, in both Marxist and Liberal traditions, at least since the First World War. This principle has enshrined a political distinction between “nationals” and “foreigners,” while internationalism and cosmopolitanism, in their various, historically specific articulations, have served as the ground of transnational solidarity where attempts have been made to bridge the posited gap between (self-determining) nationals and (solidarity-performing) foreigners.

Given the frequent overlap, in theory and practice, between visions of internationalism and cosmopolitanism on the one hand, and the remarkable internal variation—to the extent that two different and coherent bodies of thought can be said to exist in the first place—within internationalism and cosmopolitanism on the other, how should we think about the divergences and convergences between these two visions? When different versions of internationalism and cosmopolitanism as expounded and practiced by various theological traditions are added to the matrix along with their feminist, anarchist, regionalist, Third-Worldist, nationalist and militarist articulations, the nature of the two-headed monster proves too complicated to grasp in a single breath.

Internationalism, Cosmopolitanism and the Politics of Solidarity is constituted as an interdisciplinary research group to address this problem. It aims to explore the politics of transnational solidarity by addressing the complications that arise in attempts to define, critique, and practice various strands of internationalism and cosmopolitanism.

The group is led by Dr Ayça Çubukçu and LSE staff, doctoral students interested in joining the group are invited to contact her.

Annual Lecture

We host an Annual Internationalism, Cosmopolitanism and the Politics of Solidarity Lecture. The lecture is free to attend and open all.

Previous Lectures

Shadows without bodies: war, revolutionary nostalgia, and the challenges of internationalism

Wednesday 22 May 2024

Professor Christina Heatherton (Trinity College, Connecticut)
Chair: Dr Ayça Çubukçu (LSE)

 

Spaces of Struggle: rethinking internationalism in an age of war and transition

Speaker: Professor Sandro Mezzadra (University of Bologna)
Chair: Dr Ayça Çubukçu (LSE)

Policing the Crisis, Revisited 

Monday 14 March 2022

Speaker: Professor Ruth Wilson Gilmore  (The City University of New York)
Chair: Dr Ayça Çubukçu (LSE)

Cosmopolitanisms: past, present and future? 

Speaker: Professor Etienne Balibar (University of Paris-Nanterre, Kingston University, and Columbia University)
Chair: Dr Ayça Çubukçu (LSE)

Listen to the podcast 


Internationale Blues: revolutionary pessimism and the politics of solidarity

Speaker: Professor Robin D G Kelley (UCLA)
Chair: Dr Ayça Çubukçu (LSE)

Listen to the podcast


Human Rights in the Neoliberal Maelstrom

7 February 2018

Speaker: Professor Samuel Moyn (Yale University)
Chair: Dr Ayça Çubukçu (LSE)

Watch the video 


Global Civil War: solidarity by proxy

25 April 2017

Speaker: Professor Susan Buck-Morss (City University of New York)
Chair: Dr Ayça Çubukçu (LSE)


Solidarity: call for specificity

20 May 2016

Speaker: Professor Gayatri (Columbia University)
Chair: Dr Ayça Çubukçu (LSE)


Negritude, Decolonization and the Future of the World

26 May 2015

Speaker: Dr Gary Wilder (City University of New York)
Chair: Dr Ayça Çubukçu (LSE)


Nationalism, Internationalism and Cosmpolitanism: some lessons from modern Indian history

3 April 2014

Speaker: Professor Partha Chatterjee (Columbia University)
Chair: Dr Ayça Çubukçu (LSE)