Dr Lydia Walker

Dr Lydia Walker is a Visiting Fellow at Magdalene.

Lydia Walker is a historian of 20th century global decolonisation. She has broad interests in the international history of South Asia, Southern Africa, military intervention, and insurgent resistance. She is Assistant Professor and Seth Andre Myers Chair in Global Military History at The Ohio State University, where she is also a Provost's Early Career Scholar, as well as a faculty Research Associate at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, where she is Director of the Non-State Archive.

She is the author of States-in-Waiting (Cambridge University Press, 2024), an interconnected history of nationalist insurgent movements and their transnational advocacy networks during postwar global decolonisation. Her scholarship has appeared in the American Historical Review, Past & Present, and elsewhere. Her current research focuses on the history of international intervention during and after the Second World War through the evolving role of the United Nations.

She received a B.A. from Columbia University's School of General Studies and an A.M. and Ph.D. in History from Harvard University. Prior to arriving at Ohio State, she held research positions at Dartmouth College (US), the Institute of Historical Research (UK), the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (India), and Leiden University (The Netherlands).

Research Interests

• Global and Imperial History
• Military Intervention and Insurgency
• Decolonisation and the Cold War
• International Institutions
• South Asia and Southern Africa