INFORMATION. (Part 1)

So why am I going to all these seemingly random places? I’m glad you asked.

My Ph.D. dissertation is the story of four men (yes, they are all men) from four different countries:

·         Shukri al-Quwwatli (شكري القوتلي), from Syria (1892-1967): the first president of independent Syria, Shukri al-Quwwatli was born a subject of the Ottoman Empire, and trained for civil service in Istanbul, but after the Ottoman collapse in the Middle East during the close of the First World War, he became a leader in the Syrian-Palestinian Congress and then the National Bloc, both anticolonial organizations which opposed the French, who took over Syria after the war. Repeatedly exiled from Syria for his activities, Quwwatli returned in 1942 after the British invaded Syria to prevent Germany using Syrian airfields. He then became president of the new Syrian republic created in 1943, and subsequently helped play the British, French, Americans, and Soviets against one another until the British and French evacuated forces from Syria in early 1946. Quwwatli was ousted as president in a military coup in early 1949, but returned to the presidency in 1955 after Syria returned to a democratic system in the mid-1950s. He was again shunted aside once Syria joined Egypt to become the United Arab Republic in 1958, though once the UAR collapsed in 1961 Quwwatli did not return to the presidency of Syria. Exiled again after the Baathists came to power in 1963, Quwwatli died shortly after the Israeli victory in the Six Day War in May 1967. For more information and photos of Syria in the 20^th century, visit http://www.syrianhistory.com/en.

·         V.K. Krishna Menon, from India (1896-1973): Krishna Menon, a native of Kerala in southern India, spent much of his career in Britain, arriving in London as a law student and a follower of the Theosophist Annie Besant’s Indian Home Rule movement in the 1920s. While in London, he entered the orbit of British socialists and communists, and led the India League, a group lobbying for Indian independence, through which he attracted the attention of the Indian National Congress’ Jawaharlal Nehru, who would remain a close colleague and confidant throughout both men’s lives. At India’s independence in 1947, Krishna Menon became India’s first ambassador (“High Commissioner” within the British Commonwealth) to Britain, before becoming a roving ambassador for Nehru’s foreign policy, serving as Nehru’s surrogate at the United Nations through the 1950s and a vocal supporter of “non-alignment” for newly independent countries, in opposition to joining US-led alliances or the Soviet bloc. With Nehru’s support he eventually became India’s Defense Minister in 1957, supervising the liberation of Goa in 1961 as well as India’s disastrous performance in the border war with China in 1962. The war cost Krishna Menon his prominent position in government, but he remained in the Indian parliament until his death in 1974. To see Krishna Menon in action in US media at the height of his powers in the mid-1950s, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ylzRZA5-zs.

·         Carlos P. Romulo (or, “CPR”) from the Philippines (1898-1985): Carlos Romulo was a newspaper publisher in the Philippines during the 1930s and early 1940s, and won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Asian attitudes toward colonial powers in 1941. During World War II he served as General Douglas MacArthur’s press man during the Philippine campaign of 1941-1942, and then served as a press agent for the Philippine government in exile. After the war, he served as Resident Commissioner of the Philippines in the US prior to Philippine independence in 1946, and then as Ambassador to the US, as well as Philippine Ambassador to the UN. He served as President of the UN General Assembly in 1949, and President of the Security Council on multiple occasions. He left diplomatic service in 1962 to become president of the University of the Philippines, and returned as Philippine Foreign Minister in 1969, in a role in which he served until shortly before his death in 1985. For more details on his career, see his Foundation’s website: http://carlospromulo.org/bio/.

·         Nnamdi Azikiwe (or “Zik”) from Nigeria (1904-1996): Nnamdi Azikiwe was a newspaper editor in Nigeria in the 1930s and 1940s, having returned to West Africa after studying and teaching in the United States, especially at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, from the late 1920s until 1935. After pioneering an American style newspaper, the West African Pilot, and launching challenges for the British Empire to live up to its promises during the Second World War, “Zik” (as he was known ever since his U.S. days) launched a political party, which he led to electoral success in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, until he and other regional leaders in Nigeria helped negotiate Nigeria’s independence in October 1960. On independence, Zik became Governor-General (executive) and then President of Nigeria, a post he held until a coup ousted him in January 1966. Remaining in Britain during the bloody Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970, Zik returned to Nigeria after the war and twice ran again for the presidency, in 1979 and 1983, before retiring from politics in the 1990s. To see footage of Zik’s inauguration as President of Nigeria, once it became a republic in 1963, as well as footage from after the 1966 coup, see this archival footage from the AP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYsHVeCCNr4.

OK, so why all these people? Why all together? For the long answer, feel free to peruse the attached document (my “prospectus,” or the proposal for what my dissertation would cover): Prospectus.

For a more concise explanation, you’ll have to stay tuned—because this post is already pretty long.

And, for whenever you want more “INFORMATION”: