Christy Thornton

This dissertation decenters the origins of postwar multilateral liberalism, arguing that it was the product of the United States’ long engagement with social and economic demands put forward by Latin Americans, especially representatives of the Mexican revolutionary state. Examining a series of distinct but interrelated episodes from the close of World War I to the beginning of the Cold War, this project details how Mexican politicians, diplomats, and intellectuals projected outward the principles contained in the revolutionary constitution of 1917, and attempted to create international institutions rooted in notions of absolute sovereignty, economic self-determination, and solidarity among weak states. These multilateral visions not only played an important role in Mexican state formation and legitimation as Mexico rebuilt following its decade of revolutionary war, but also had a profound impact on US visions for how international governance should be structured.