Mark Tseng-Putterman

“The Internationalists: Asian/American Politics in the Shadow of Cold War Empire” charts a social history of Asian/American internationalism during the Cold War. Examining community engagements with three geopolitical flashpoints—the US-Japan Security Treaty, US nonrecognition of the People’s Republic of China, and US support for martial law in the Philippines—this project tracks how US foreign policy shaped diasporic experiences of race and empire at the global and local level. Considering Asian/American internationalism at the crossroads of domestic claims to US citizenship and international claims to state sovereignty, this dissertation explores how diverse transnational identifications revealed the enduring structure of empire in an ostensibly postcolonial era.