International Administration Between the Wars: A Reappraisal

This article traces the chronology of the interwar decline of European influence and power, arguing that its origins outside Europe are to be found as much in the paradoxical status of inter- national administration of colonial and post-colonial areas as in the direct challenges posed to European stability by revisionist states in the early 1930s. It demonstrates that an inherent ambiva- lence toward the interwar colonial world and its relationship to Europe presaged and conditioned the collapse of Europe’s own balance of power.