Ms Meredith Okell1
1Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Biography:
Meredith Okell is a PhD Candidate in the Department of International Relations in the School of Asia Pacific Affairs at ANU. Her current research explores the history and concepts of global governance and international relations, with a focus on the United Nations. Meredith holds an MPhil in English Studies: Criticism and Culture from the University of Cambridge (2011) and a first-class BA (Hons) in English Literature and Media Studies from the University of Sussex (2008). Meredith is an experienced senior research and communications professional with expertise in government relations, policy and the cultural and creative sectors. She has worked as a research consultant for UNESCO and as Director of Communications and Engagement for IFACCA, a global membership body comprising government agencies and ministries that invest in and make policy for the cultural and creative sectors, in 70+ countries across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific.
Abstract:
In our present moment solidarity abounds. Conceptually, at least. It is a fundamental moral value and lodestar for global governance; a clarion call for war and security; a jurisprudential principle for social, fiscal and climate justice; an ethical obligation for global health; and, for some, the basis for cosmopolitan internationalist revolution (and reactionary counter-movements). While rhetorically familiar, the contemporary political concept of solidarity is relatively new, having developed out of legal and sociological theory from the late nineteenth century, largely related to national and transnational communities of common interest. But how might we understand this prevalent yet multivalent concept when used by nation states in our current international context? Who comprises the community of common interest? And what might the concept imply for global governance? This paper will consider these questions by exploring the legal, sociological and political history of solidarity and examples of its intergovernmental deployment throughout the twentieth century.