In July 1959, in the last throes of the Algerian revolutionary war, Frantz Fanon (1963: 32), who had become one of the most eloquent spokespersons of that struggle, declared that:

The awareness of a world whose sympathy can be mobilized in defense of one's cause and the successful overcoming of national boundaries in appealing to large audiences are distinguishing features of many political movements of the post-Second World War era. Transnational networks of solidarity and sympathy have come into being in universities, religious institutions, solidarity organizations, battlefields, and conferences, and different movements have provided one another with financial resources, volunteers – both militant and pacifist – and arms. But alongside the more material manifestations of global affiliations, transnational discourses are forged in particular places which are then borrowed, nurtured, translated, and transformed across borders.