"Mephistopheles in a Savile Row Suit": V. K. Krishna Menon and the West

Abstract

In the late 1940s, through the 1950s, and into the early 1960s, Vengalil Krishnan (V. K.) Krishna Menon was one of the handful of post-colonial politicians who led what became known as the “revolt against the West” (Barraclough 1988 [1964]; Bull 1984; Clark 1958; Hall 2011; Mishra 2012). That “revolt” was one of the most significant and consequential phases in modern international relations. It brought about the rapid decolonization of the European empires in Africa and Asia, creating dozens of new sovereign states, transforming the United Nations and the conduct of international relations between North and South, rich and poor, as well as within the developing world. It challenged the power and the legitimacy of both sides in the Cold War, although the authors of the “revolt,” including Menon, tended to focus most of their ire on what they perceived to be an exploitative and “neocolonial” United States.