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The London School of Economics and Political Science LOVE IN A TIME OF EMPIRE An Engagement with the Political Thought of Tolstoy, Tagore and Camus Liane Marie Hartnett A thesis submitted to the Department of International Relations of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, September 2018. DECLARATION I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 77,173 words. 1 ABSTRACT Hannah Arendt once wrote, ‘Love, by its very nature, is unworldly, and it is for this reason rather than its rarity that it is not only apolitical but antipolitical, perhaps the most powerful of all antipolitical human forces’. Situated in the interstices of intellectual history, international political theory and literature, this thesis is my attempt to think through this claim. I do this via an engagement with the thought of three liminal literary figures, namely, Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) and Albert Camus (1913-1960). Reading their literary work alongside their more conventionally understood political writings, I explore how they conceived, evoked and ‘mobilised’ love in the context of Russian, British and French imperialism. Further, I argue that political conceptions of love in this period (circa 1880-1960) were not rare. Rather, love was evoked in the political work of canonical figures associated with International Relations. In this thesis, I aim to make love a serious object of study in International Relations. Indeed, despite the burgeoning literature on aesthetics and emotions, there is no systematic study of love in the discipline. I argue a thematic focus on love not only illuminates neglected dimensions of the thought of canonical figures, but brings to light the political work of forgotten ones. Considering the myriad of ways in which love is ‘mobilised’ in the works of Tolstoy, Tagore, Camus and their contemporaries, I offer an account of love as part of a social imaginary – or what Charles Taylor describes as the ‘background’ that enables practices and confers legitimacy – variously hospitable and hostile to empire and politics. I argue that not all loves are conducive to politics. However, to the extent that the polis is populated by plural loves, love is integral to the study of International Relations. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have had the good fortune of being supervised and mentored by individuals whose integrity and intellect I hold in the highest esteem. I would like to thank four people in particular for making the academy such a welcoming place. I thank my supervisor, Chris Brown, for his patience, support and encouragement as I sought to juggle research with teaching and parenting. Chris’ supervision helped make the writing of this thesis a joyous experience. I am grateful to him for giving me the space and the structure to write the thesis I wanted to write, and for believing in me and my project even when I didn’t. There would have been no thesis on love and international political thought had it not been for my MPhil supervisor, Duncan Bell’s initial support. I thank Duncan for helping me transform a rather amorphous idea into a coherent thesis proposal, for feedback on written work and conversations which helped me clarify my ideas. This thesis has been enriched by his generosity and guidance. I cannot begin to articulate the influence my Honours supervisor, Robert Manne, has had on my thought. Weekly, hour long supervisions helped me find my academic voice and form me in a vocation to think and write about politics as I understand it to pertain to people. The form this thesis has unwittingly come to take with its emphasis on literature and the twentieth century bears witness to the influence of his course on Twentieth Century Politics. Finally, I doubt I would have persisted with International Relations, let alone pursued postgraduate study had it not been for my first teacher of ethics and political theory, Renée Jeffery. Renée helped me realise my interests in political philosophy and theology were not incompatible with the study of International Relations. She also provided invaluable guidance when I decided to apply for Master’s programmes and then PhDs. Years later, Renée has read and commented on written work. For all that Renée has done for me, I remain in her debt. I gratefully acknowledge my studentship from the LSE, without which I would not have been able to write a thesis. Special thanks are due to my PhD panellists, Tarak Barkawi and Mark Hoffman, for their generosity and guidance. If this thesis at all seems relevant to International Relations, it is a credit to them. That this thesis is about empire is also entirely owing to Tarak’s influence. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Tarak Barkawi, Duncan Bell, Cian O’Driscoll, Ian Hall, Mark Hoffman, Emma Hutchison, Renee Jeffery, Henry Radice and Rahul Rao for their detailed and insightful comments on written work. I also benefited tremendously from presenting three early drafts of my substantive chapters at LSE’s International Theory or IR502 seminars. I thank everyone who attended and engaged with my work. I’d particularly like to thank Kirsten Ainley, Martin Bayly, Ida Danewid, Andrew Delatolla, George Lawson, Margot Light, Aaron McKeil, Jeppe Mulich, Chris Murray, Iver Neumann, Andreas Nohr, Henry Radice, Chris Rossdale, Peter Wilson, Joanne Yao and Asad Zaidi for their incredibly helpful comments and insights on written work. I thank my wonderful family for their love and support. Jacob Matthews accompanied me across hemispheres when I first decided to pursue postgraduate study. His love, friendship and terrible sense of humour sustains me. I thank him for being an incredible co-parent and supportive spouse even when it has meant making many personal and professional sacrifices. Although almost entirely responsible for every delay and distraction, our daughter, Grace, has brought me more joy than I could have ever imagined. I thank her for her kind words of encouragement and for sharing me her entire life with this thesis. My parents, Michael and Rosalind Hartnett, never cease to inspire me with their selflessness. August is always my most productive writing month because they spend it with us helping us meet gaps in childcare. Despite the distance, I thank my dearest friend, Molly Williams and my sister, Michelle Hartnett, for sharing my every trial and tribulation. Finally, I’d like to acknowledge the profound influence my grandparents have had on my life. I am so very thankful for their love, care and constant encouragement. With love and gratitude, I dedicate this thesis to my grandmother, Patricia Hartnett, and to the memory of my grandfather, Hugh Hartnett. 3 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 5 Love and International Relations 7 On Love: A Schema 12 Love, Literature and Liminality 30 Aims, Plan and Method 37 CHAPTER 2: LOVE AND THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ‘CANON’ 41 Of Cosmos and Commonwealth: Love and Order in Murray and Zimmern’s Thought 42 History and Christianity: Love and ‘Civilisation’ in the Thought of Butterfield and Toynbee 52 Between Agape and Eros: Reinhold Niebuhr and Hans Morgenthau on Love and Power 62 Conclusion 72 CHAPTER 3: TOLSTOY’S LAW OF LOVE 74 A Tale of Two Tolstoys?: Tolstoy’s Political and Literary Influence 75 From Amour De Soi to The Law of Love: The Aesthetics and Ethics of Empire 85 Love as Non-Violence: Tolstoy’s Anti-Imperial Epistles 107 Conclusion 116 CHAPTER 4: RABINDRANATH TAGORE ON LOVING IN THE PARTICULAR 118 Contextualising Tagore 119 The Intimate Is International: Tagore’s Post-Swadeshi Novels 127 Of Amity and Internationalism 158 Conclusion 162 CHAPTER 5: ALBERT CAMUS ON LOVE, REBELLION AND UTOPIA 164 Mediterranean Utopias, or Hellenism contra Christianity 166 Sisyphus, Christ and the Arab 177 Prometheus, Saints and Men 186 Can an Arab Rebel? 198 Conclusion 206 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 208 Love and Politics in a Time of Empire: An Imagined Conversation 210 Whose Love? Which Politics? 220 REFERENCES 224 4 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION But love, what is it? A side-issue. - Albert Camus. The televised sermon of Bishop Michael Curry at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in May 2018 caused some consternation. Central to this was his decision to focus less on romantic love and more on the assertion that all love was of the same essence, with the ‘revolutionary’ ‘power’ to end wars, poverty and injustice.1 In fact, religious evocations of love in politics are not uncommon. Despite the differences that divide the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, and the opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, both chose to place ‘love’ at the centre of their 2017 Christmas messages. Beyond this rare moment of rhetorical unity lay two very different conceptions of what ‘loving’ looked like. For Mrs. May, ‘love’ is a Christian value exemplified in the acts of service and charity performed by the men and women of the armed forces and volunteer services.2 For Mr. Corbyn, it entailed caring for and acting to redress the seeming inevitability of homelessness, resource cuts and war.3 These quasi-religious evocations of ‘love’ in Anglo- American politics abound.