This lecture revisits the heyday of US-China relations, the period from the late Qing dynasty to the end of the Second World War. It examines the significance of US-China relations in a variety of world regions by explaining how the promise of transnational higher education, the politics of history and diplomatic ingenuity forged avenues of cooperation that were unprecedented and consequential for the international order. Drawing on this era of US-China cooperation poses critical questions about how the past relates to the present in harshly different conditions and how historians and citizens generally can navigate the trends of their own time.
Dr Steffen Rimner is currently Assistant Professor of the History of International Affairs at the School of History at University College Dublin and Director of the UCD Centre for Asia-Pacific Research. He was educated in Europe, Asia and the United States and obtained his Ph.D. in History from Harvard University, followed by postdoctoral and research affiliations at Yale University, Columbia University, the University of Oxford, Waseda University and the University of Tokyo. His first book is entitled Opium's Long Shadow: From Asian Revolt to Global Drug Control (Harvard University Press).
