Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
History
Program Name/Specialization
World History
Faculty/School
Faculty of Arts
First Advisor
Blaine Chiasson
Advisor Role
Advisor
Abstract
This dissertation focuses the interwar period of the Institute of Pacific Relations from its founding in 1925 to the beginning of the second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 to examine the importance of the institute to interwar international relations. The IPR’s interwar years have received modest attention from scholars since the institute’s dissolution in the 1960s but the IPR in general has become a more popular area of research in recent times as the discipline of internationalism has sought to broaden its scope beyond traditional Atlantic-centric histories. Through the biannual conferences and research articles published in Pacific Affairs the IPR offers a unique glimpse into the course of Pacific relations from the end of the First World War to Japan’s invasion of China in 1937, seen as the opening of the Second World War in the Pacific. Conference agendas, opening addresses, articles in the IPR journal Pacific Review, and IPR research between conferences show how the institute’s member groups reflected the changing political landscape of the region. This dissertation traces the gradual shift from post-First World War idealist internationalism to the rise of an isolationist nationalism that fostered conflict and war in the 1930s. At its founding the IPR sought to bring what they saw as a unique system of conflict resolution created by Hawaiian multiculturalism and cultural education to the greater Pacific region, but idealists within the IPR were quickly faced with the realism of international politics and the persistent strength of nationalism. Determined to show an unofficial private organization based on fact-based research could be a viable alternative to the back door dealings and stifling expectations of formal international gatherings, the IPR was never willing to support the topics most Asian Pacific nations considered important, topics that inconvenienced a Pacific status quo that favoured Western nations. By the 1929 Kyoto Conference, the IPR agenda became dominated by Sino-Japanese relations and the IPR’s idealism was challenged by the nationalist Japanese member group (JIPR) who supported their government’s claim to special rights in Manchuria after the 1931 Manchurian Incident. Unable to reconcile with the JIPR, who combined internationalism with nationalism, the IPR fractured during the 1936 Yosemite conference leading to the JIPR’s withdrawal from the IPR and effectively the end of the institute in the interwar period. In this dissertation I have used Japanese names in the Japanese convention of family name first, followed by given name. Most of the Chinese persons mentioned in this dissertation were well known in IPR and western media by their western style names (Sun Yat-sen, Hu Shi) so for the sake of consistency I kept these versions. Only for Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin and his son Zhang Xueliang have I used pinyin romanization. Most Chinese place names are in pinyin, except for Hangchou (pinyin Hangzhou) almost the location of an IPR conference. I have left it in the Wade-Giles romanization used in IPR records.
Recommended Citation
deuxberry, zachary, "A Window into International Relations in the Pacific Region: The Institute of Pacific Relations during the Interwar Period 1925-1937" (2025). Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive). 2818.
https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/2818
Convocation Year
2025
Convocation Season
Fall
Included in
Asian History Commons, Canadian History Commons, Other History Commons, Political History Commons, United States History Commons