Decolonising Global Order narrates a new history of the United Nations which, for the first time places the actors of the Global South at the centre of the analysis. It charts the role of actors which have traditionally been rendered invisible in the history of liberal internationalism by examining how they changed the UN between1945-1980. Recovering their historical agency, the book exposes how states and non-state groups shaped global order by transforming the structure and nature of the UN as they advanced a wide-ranging agenda in pursuit of global equality. As critical agents, Global South actors viewed the UN as a vehicle to achieve decolonisation, which came to mean more than just the acquisition of political sovereignty, but addressed a range of North-South economic, political and social injustices. Growing in prominence and activism over time, actors from Africa, Asia and Latin America increased the UN’s competencies, functions and role in multiple areas which challenged the traditional dominance of the Western powers. Transforming the UN from a stronghold for liberal internationalism into the epicentre of the struggle against it, they reified different visions of a new, more equitable system, as architects of a new world order.

About the speaker

Professor Alanna O'Malley is Chair of Global Governance and Wealth at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. A historian of international relations, she is an expert on the United Nations, decolonization and the Global South. She is an ERC Laureate, having been awarded a Starting Grant as Principal Investigator of the project: ‘Challenging the Liberal World Order from Within, the Invisible History of the United Nations and the Global South'. She held the inaugural Chair in United Nations Studies in Peace and Justice at Leiden University until 2021. She has also published her work widely in leading journals including Humanity, International History Review, Past & Present and Journal of Cold War Studies, among others. She is a regular contributor to national and international media including Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN and TRT World.