Securing Empire: Imperial Cooperation and Competition in the Nineteenth Century

This volume explores how the quest for security reshaped the world over the course of the 19th century, altering the structures, hierarchies and dynamics of international relations during a pivotal moment in world history.

Taking a unique approach to imperial and international history, the essays in this volume show how security propelled imperial expansion, supported institutions of cooperation, maintained networks of imperial actors and shaped experiences of imperial rule. Contending that security should be studied as a force in its own right, one that drove processes of colonization, civilization and commerce, Securing Empire shows how cooperation between and across empires hinged on shared notions of threats and common ways of countering them.

In showing that security did not solely inform, support and complicate unilateral imperial endeavours, but also brought different imperial entities together and forged global modes of government, this book shows how integral security was to the ’global transformation’ of the 19th century and the new world order that emerged.

Beatrice de Graaf is Professor of History at University of Utrecht, Netherlands. A historian in the field of security and terrorism, her research focuses on security-related themes in the 19th century and on modern and contemporary cases of conflict and terrorism. She was awarded with the Stevin Prize in 2018 for her work.

Ozan Ozavi is Assistant Professor of Transimperial History at Utrecht University, Netherlands, and co-convenor of the Lausanne Project and the Security History Network. His current research looks at military presence and imperial cooperation in the nineteenth-century Mediterranean.

Erik de Lange is Assistant Professor of Transimperial History at Utrecht University, Netherlands, and co-convenor of the Lausanne Project and the Security History Network. His publications include Dangerous Gifts: Imperialism, Security, and Civil Wars in the Levant, 1798-1864 (2021), and Intellectual Origins of the Republic: Ahmet Agaoglu and the Genealogy of Liberalism in Turkey (2015).