Global Governance and Imperial Entanglements: Competition, Cooperation, and Catastrophe in Anglo-Italian Relations, 1922-1940
Abstract
This study reconsiders the road to war narrative by focusing on cooperation rather than conflict in Anglo-Italian relations. I link international and imperial historical methods in order to examine British and Italian efforts to cooperate over their clashing interests in empire between 1922 and 1940. By comparing six case studies drawn from British and Italian archives, this thesis explains why the two governments pursued cooperation over empire; how imperial methods facilitated or challenged cooperation; and what this tells us about the global order and the norms that governed it during the interwar years.Three case studies highlight imperial spaces where cooperation was relatively successful and three case studies explore imperial crises which created great challenges for cooperation. British and Italian attempts at cooperation reveal the hybrid nature of international relations during the interwar years combining nineteenth century norms and practices with norms of internationalization embodied by the League of Nations.