Policing Transnational Protest: Liberal Imperialism and the Surveillance of Anticolonialists in Europe, 1905-1945

Policing Transnational Protest offers an original perspective on the history of police surveillance of anticolonial activists in France, Britain, and Germany in the first half of the twentieth century. Tracing the undertakings of anticolonial activists from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East in Europe and reconstructing the reaction of European governments, it illuminates the increasing cooperation of the police and secret services to monitor the activities of the "oriental revolutionaries" and curb their room to maneuver. But those efforts had an unintended inflammatory effect, provoking both supporters and opponents of colonial rule to understand the conflict in increasingly global and trans-imperial terms. The surveillance also exacerbated tensions between Europeans friendly to the anticolonial cause, and those who prioritized imperial security over civil liberties and national sovereignty. Tracking growing levels of transnational government cooperation against anti-colonialists, this book pays special attention to Germany, where many activists were able to carry out their political work in relative safety after escaping surveillance in Britain and France. By analyzing the emergence of ever more sophisticated counter-terrorism schemes and surveillance apparatuses, Brückenhaus also contributes a pre-history of similar phenomena characterizing the post-9/11 world. He shows how, then as now, an intensification of a "war on terror" went hand in hand with concerns about encroachments on civil liberties, often expressed in open protest against such governance measures. Policing Transnational Protest informs current debates about intelligence gathering and surveillance in several European countries as well as their new cooperative partner, the United States.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Chapter 1: The Surveillance of Indian Anticolonialists in Britain, France, and Germany, 1905-1914 Chapter 2: Surveillance under Wartime Conditions and the German-Anticolonialist Alliance, 1914-1918 Chapter 3: The Expansion of the French Colonial Surveillance Network in Western Europe, 1918-1925 Chapter 4: New Alliances Against Anticolonialism? The Scope of British Police Cooperation with French and German Authorities, 1918-1925 Chapter 5: The League Against Imperialism Years, 1926-1933 Chapter 6: Nazi Rule and Transnational Anticolonialism in Western Europe, 1933-1945 Epilogue and Conclusion Appendix: Some Thoughts on Sources Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Daniel Brückenhaus is Assistant Professor of History at Beloit College.

Review :
"Daniel Brückenhaus' new monographâcontains all the exciting elements of new international history. Its archival span covers several countries across four continents, its source base is multilingual and it features a wide and diverse cast of characters...This work is...a contribution to the growing historiography on the sites and spaces of transimperial and transnational radical politics in the twentieth century. This intervention is both important and timely because it allows us to understand how practices of anticolonial activism were shaped by, and in turn influenced, the evolving practices of policing and surveillance." -- Zaib un Nisa Aziz, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History "In Policing Transnational Protest, Daniel Brückenhaus tracks how Britain and France constructed transnational policing practices and institutions in the first half of the twentieth century in order to monitor and combat anti-imperial movements that were, themselves, increasingly international...Carefully argued, and based on prodigious research in British, French, German, and Indian archives, this important but restrained book is a model of how to conceptualize and write transnational history. It deserves a wide readership." -- Susan Pedersen, American Historical Review "In addition to looking beyond state barriers, [t]his work significantly moves from vertical analysis, between colonial states and their colonies, to horizontal analysis, assessing the movement of anti-colonial nationalists between European states, and the work of the state and its institutions across those same borders in surveilling and constraining them." -- Kyle Matthews, Critical Studies on Terrorism "Brückenhaus's transnational orientation illuminates important dynamics of anticolonialism and imperial surveillance that would be largely invisible if considered within the framework of a single imperial story... It should thus be of interest to a wide variety of scholars of modern Europe interested in the transnational dimensions of the history of imperialism, anticolonialism, policing, and political culture." -- Elun T. Gabriel, Journal of Modern History "Brückenhaus constructs an excellent history of anti-colonialism in Europe, using both police documents and correspondence seized by the police."--J. C. Berg, CHOICE "Daniel Brückenhaus has given us a gripping account of the cat-and-mouse game between surveillance and anticolonial activists in early twentieth-century Europe. Full of beguiling characters, the book manages to read like a detective story and at the same to redirect the way future scholars will think about the histories of police and of imperialism."--Michael Goebel, Freie Universität Berlin "Policing Transnational Protest transforms our understanding of transnational anticolonial protest by uncovering the relationship between expanding police networks and the border crossings of anticolonial radicals. An outstanding work of transnational history, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in anticolonial protest or the surveillance regimes that remain such a pervasive force in our age."--Nico Slate, Carnegie Mellon University "Daniel Brückenhaus' fascinating and empirically well-grounded study provides an original transnational perspective on the endeavors of anticolonial activists in Europe during the first part of the twentieth century and offers a thorough analysis of the reactions they triggered among European governments. While this in itself would be a valuable contribution to historiography, Brückenhaus also deftly uses his exploration of British, French, and German 'counter-insurgency' efforts to elucidate our own post-9/11 experience. Most importantly, he reminds us that a strong emphasis on security produced, and continues to produce, justified unease about the curtailment of civil liberties."--Harald Fischer-Tiné, ETH-Zurich