Mitchel Stuffers
Assistant Editor at CIGH Exeter & PhD Candidate in History, University of Exeter

From populist influences on global institutions to a new tool uncovering Nazi Party family affiliations, here are this week’s top picks in imperial and global history.

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How populists are reshaping global institutions

Richard Clark and Allison Carnegie
Good Authority

When the United States steps back from international institutions related to climate, global health, security, or other priorities, it sends shockwaves through the system. Under Donald Trump, the U.S. has withdrawn from the Paris climate agreement and moved to pull out of the World Health Organization. More recently, Trump has renewed his attacks on NATO, warning that the 77-year-old security alliance faces a “very bad” future, after NATO partners appeared unwilling to help U.S. forces reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Elsewhere, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has defied European Union rules on migration and rule of law, and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro rolled back environmental cooperation and protections in the Amazon. With populist leaders across Europe and the Americas echoing similar skepticism, many fear global cooperation is unraveling. And yet, international organizations have largely persisted through this turbulent period. We argue they are doing so by adjusting their operations – and in the process, international organizations are also reshaping the rules of global governance. [Continue reading]

All The President’s Men at 50: how a trusted US media covered politics in the 1970s

Matthew Mokhefi-Ashton
Conversation

This month marks the 50th anniversary of a much-revered classic of American cinema, All The President’s Men. The 1976 movie starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman was an adaptation of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s 1974 book of investigative journalism detailing their two-year unravelling of the Watergate conspiracy. The shocking scandal brought down a president and profoundly shook Americans’ trust in government.

On June 17 1972, operatives working for President Richard Nixon’s Committee for the Re-election of the President (often satirically referred to as CREEP) were caught breaking into the Democrat party’s national headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington. The subsequent attempted cover-up eventually led to the resignation of Nixon and many in his administration going to jail. [Continue reading]

Our Freedom: Then and Now explores what freedom means to Brits, 80 years after the second world war

Mark Rawlinson
Conversation

Marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war, Our Freedom: Then and Now is a nationwide photography project exploring how communities understand freedom. The show opened at London’s Southbank Centre in April and is now touring the UK. This exhibition offers an alternative perspective to the idea that this is currently a nation divided. From the Highlands of Scotland to libraries in southwest England, it asks a simple yet powerful question: what did freedom mean in 1945, and what does it mean now?

The Socially Engaged Photography Network sent 22 photographers to work closely with community projects, ensuring the photographs were created in collaboration with participants. This approach is distinct from traditional photojournalism, which often speaks about rather than with the people photographed. By spending time in places such as Maesteg Town Hall and libraries in Stornoway, artists including Johannah Churchill, Sam Ivin and Leticia Valverdes have focused on making photographs that portray the viewpoints of the people involved. [Continue reading]

Japan to provide $10 bn support to Southeast Asia to secure oil amid surge

Editorial Team
Business Standard

Japan will provide $10 billion in financial support to nations in Southeast Asia to help them cope with soaring crude oil prices due to the war in the West Asia. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced the aid after the nation held a virtual meeting with regional leaders on Wednesday afternoon. She said in a news briefing that Japan relies on Asian nations to secure medical supplies like surgery gloves and equipment used for dialysis patients.

“Japan is closely linked to other Asian countries through supply chains and other means,” Takaichi told reporters. “Fuel shortages and supply-chain disruptions in Asia would hinder the procurement of these medical supplies from Asia to Japan, which would have a significant negative impact on Japan’s economy and society.” [Continue reading]

New search engine reveals if ancestors were in Nazi party

 Bethany Bell
BBC News

A new German online search engine is helping people to discover if their ancestors were members of the Nazi Party. Christian Rainer, from Austria, told the BBC he found the name of his grandfather “within a few seconds”. “I found out that he became a member of the Nazi Party around 21st of April 1938, just a few days after the Anschluss,” when Adolf Hitler annexed Austria to Germany, he said. The online tool allows people to search through several million Nazi Party membership cards, the “NSDAP-Mitgliederkartei”. “He applied to become a member of the NSDAP (Nazi) Party, just five days after it became legal in Austria,” Rainer, the former editor of the Austrian news magazine profil, said.

The search tool was set up by the German newspaper, Die Zeit, in cooperation with archives in Germany and in the United States. Rainer never met his grandfather, who died shortly before he was born in 1961. “I always knew that he was close to the Nazis, but I was surprised that it only took him five days” to join them, he said. [Continue reading]