Postcolonialism and international relations theory
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Postcolonial international relations (Postcolonial IR) is a branch of scholarship that approaches the study of
international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...
(IR) using the critical lens of
postcolonialism Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...
. This critique of IR theory suggests that mainstream IR scholarship does not adequately address the impacts of
colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...
and
imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
on current day world politics. Despite using the language of ''post-'', scholars of Postcolonial IR argue that the legacies of colonialism are ongoing, and that critiquing International Relations with this lens allows scholars to contextualize global events. By bridging postcolonialism and International Relations, scholars point to the process of
globalization Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...
as a crucial point in both fields, due to the increases in global interactions and integration. Postcolonial IR focuses on the re-narrativization of global politics to create a balanced transnational understanding of colonial histories, and attempts to tie non- Western sources of thought into political praxis. Postcolonial IR developed through the study of postcolonialism as a rejection of colonialism, and parallels
postmodernism Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...
or
poststructuralism Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...
in the skepticism towards and departure from the dominant ideologies of
modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
and
structuralism In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...
, respectively. Postcolonial IR is critically introspective into the study of International Relations, often in attempts to disturb dominant models of theorization to relocate IR temporally and spatially. Some scholars of Postcolonial IR critique postcolonialism as well for taking too much of a cultural and
civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). Ci ...
al approach, rather than connecting colonialism to political and economic structures of the modern world. Many scholars have attempted to bridge the studies of postcolonialism and international relations, and have often taken interdisciplinary approaches that consider various social aspects such as race,
gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
, and
class Class or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differentl ...
. Additionally, scholars of postcolonial IR have also critically analyzed systems such as
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
,
patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...
, and militarism as modes in which colonization has impacted political issues such as governance and
sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...
. Some prominent scholars that have informed the approach of postcolonialism include Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, and
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 24 February 1942) is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Lite ...
, amongst many others. Postcolonial IR's critique of mainstream IR studies of capitalism claims that the legacies of the
exploitation Exploitation may refer to: *Exploitation of natural resources *Exploitation of labour **Forced labour *Exploitation colonialism *Slavery **Sexual slavery and other forms *Oppression *Psychological manipulation In arts and entertainment *Exploita ...
of labour through colonization and imperialism are not acknowledged enough as current
global economy The world economy or global economy is the economy of all humans of the world, referring to the global economic system, which includes all economic activities which are conducted both within and between nations, including production, consumption, ...
.
Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He founded the Par ...
's essay '' Discourse on Colonialism'' rejects the claim that capitalism is simply the pursuit of
wealth Wealth is the abundance of Value (economics), valuable financial assets or property, physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for financial transaction, transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the ...
and power, and emphasizes the European colonial empire's desire to 'civilize' pre-colonial societies. This concept is also highlighted by
Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...
in their conceptualization of '
The White Man's Burden "The White Man's Burden" (1899), by Rudyard Kipling, is a poem about the Philippine–American War (1899–1902) that exhorts the United States to assume colonial control of the Filipino people and their country.Hitchens, Christopher. ''Bloo ...
' to bring Western ideologies in order to enlighten morally 'primitive' colonized peoples. Postcolonial IR traces the global economy to exploitation in the forms of transatlantic slavery, such as through the
British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
,
Royal African Company The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English mercantile (trade, trading) company set up in 1660 by the royal House of Stuart, Stuart family and City of London merchants to trade along the West Africa, west coast of Africa. It was led by the J ...
, and the
Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
, as well as conquest and genocide of Indigenous peoples, in order to create conditions suitable for European colonial expansion. As such, the labelling of the '
Third World The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...
' in the economic and political sense during the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
can be viewed from a Postcolonial IR perspective to embody racialized and colonial meanings instead. For instance, some scholars of Postcolonial IR argue that the institution of development aid has reinforced these inferiority narratives by creating systems in which Western countries, through agencies such as the
IMF The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...
, benevolently bring
modernization Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...
to 'Third World' countries.


History

The study of postcolonial International Relations has emerged only recently as a subfield in the discipline International Relations, but there have been previous postcolonial approaches to International Relations that were not systematically recognized as such, or were excluded from dominant narratives. For instance, a group of scholars at Howard University including
Ralph Bunche Ralph Johnson Bunche (; August 7, 1904 – December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist, diplomat, and leading actor in the mid-20th-century decolonization process and US civil rights movement, who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize f ...
, Alain Locke, and Merze Tate among others, considered race, empire, and decolonization in the context of global colonial dynamics. These scholars, active in the first half of the 20th century, challenged dominant theoretical assumptions about global racial hierarchies that informed the early mainstream developments of International Relations. They were focused on systemic factors that disadvantaged Black people globally, such as the
Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
in the United States and global colonial exploitation by Europeans. This school of thought developed parallel to and in response to early mainstream International Relations in North America that evolved based on perceived threats to the white supremacist system through the increased spatial concentration of Black people, culture, and intellectualism. The work of these scholars can be considered postcolonial because they stressed global solidarity of liberation movements, questioned racial hierarchies that placed Black people at the bottom, and explored the relationship of race and empire in shaping global power dynamics. Influential in postcolonial IR theory, scholars like
W.E.B. DuBois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...
and Alain Locke have considered the impact of national
imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
on modern war and international affairs. They have also formulated cultural theses about
diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...
, cultural
self-determination The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...
, and
cosmopolitanism Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all human beings are members of a single community. Its adherents are known as cosmopolitan or cosmopolite. Cosmopolitanism is both prescriptive and aspirational, believing humans can and should be " world citizens ...
. It can be argued that the discipline of International Relations has become less open over the years, becoming less receptive to cultural perspectives other than the dominant Western narrative. In 1968, postcolonial African scholar
Ali A. Mazrui Ali Al'amin Mazrui (24 February 1933 – 12 October 2014), was a Kenyan-born American academic, professor, and political writer on African and Islamic studies, and North-South relations. He was born in Mombasa, Kenya. His positions included Dire ...
published an article on issues of the Global North and South relations in '' World Politics'', one of the leading journals of International Relations. In the 1960s and 1970s, the discipline was more engaged with the so-called 'third world', a stance that reflected a general political interest of the West in the decolonization movements of the former European colonies. Through scholars like Mazrui, whose origins and perspective situated them outside the western mainstream of the discipline, for a few years, scholars within mainstream International Relations were influenced to ask questions about the 'third world' in a more postcolonial context. One example of this is Australian scholar Hedley Bull, who is said to have been influenced by Mazrui through a close professional adversarial relationship. Shortly after, however, International Relations scholars turned away from this development. In the 1970s and 1980s, International Relations became more westernized, dubbed the "American Social Science", and excluded postcolonial scholars like Mazrui that would challenge some of the foundational theories of International Relations. This time period also gave rise to
positivism Positivism is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—meaning ''a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. G ...
in International Relations, which centers empiricist observation and a more scientific approach, as many academic contributions to the discussion are overlooked when they are not explicitly labelled IR by their authors or other academics later on. Political scientist Mae C. King is among the Black female scholars who wrote on race and foreign and military policy in the 1980s and 1990s but have gotten little recognition within postcolonial IR. Notably, since the 1990s, there have been a number of scholars publishing on the relationship between International Relations and race, including
Neta Crawford Neta ( ) C. Crawford (born 1961) is an American political scientist. She is Montague Burton Chair in International Relations at the University of Oxford and holds a Professorial Fellowship at Balliol College. Crawford previously served as profes ...
and
Shirin M. Rai Shirin M. Rai (born 1 December 1960), is an interdisciplinary scholar who works across the political science and international relations boundaries. She is known for her research on the intersections between international political economy, gl ...
.


Approach

Postcolonial IR is an evolving academic approach that has diverse methodologies, usually addressing the hierarchies and structures of power between (post-) colonial states and colonized regions, sometimes described as the North-South divide. Postcolonial studies are traditionally situated in the humanities, which has had two main consequences in the context of their connection to International Relations. Firstly, they have been marginalized in the disciplines of political science and International Relations due to their unscientific character. This has made the utilization of a postcolonial lens on International Relations more difficult, since there is barely any practical academic overlap between the two disciplines at universities. Secondly, postcolonial thought is frequently understood to not be political enough. This is a critique often echoed in relation to postmodernist thought, for example Edward Said's critique of
Foucault Foucault may refer to: *Foucault (surname) *Léon Foucault (1819–1868), French physicist. Three notable objects were named after him: **Foucault (crater), a small lunar impact crater ** 5668 Foucault, an asteroid **Foucault pendulum *Michel Fouca ...
for the lack of space for materialist thinking and active resistance in his works.  Postcolonial approaches in political science are also present in other subfields such as postpositivism and critical political theory that overlap with Postcolonial IR. This proliferation of specialized subfields, combined with its own uncertainty about its identity and positionality, complicates engagement with Postcolonial IR.


Confronting Eurocentrism

Much of initial Postcolonial IR critiqued mainstream International Relations as overlooking European imperialism as to create a Eurocentric narrative of global politics, with postcolonial scholars aiming to expand
knowledge production Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distinc ...
to the contributions of non-Western perspectives. Eurocentrism is often also accompanied by the term "
Orientalism In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...
", coined by Edward Said in their 1978 book, which describes the ways in which the ' East' has been depicted by Western society as being underdeveloped and inferior. Postcolonial IR compares global colonial power dynamics to critique the subjectivity of the cultural and ideological 'Other' of International Relations, which is embodied by the portrayal of colonized countries and their people as subordinate to European nations. Spivak uses the concept of the
subaltern Subaltern may refer to: *Subaltern (postcolonialism), colonial populations who are outside the hierarchy of power * Subaltern (military), a primarily British and Commonwealth military term for a junior officer * Subalternation, going from a univer ...
to describe those that are excluded from cultural hegemonic discourse, and have very little or no agency to speak on their oppression. Said argues that taking a political stance of those experiencing ongoing victimization from colonial, capitalist, and patriarchal world order is essential to disrupt European hegemonic power.Postcolonialism in International Relations provides the opportunity to give agency to the
Third World The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...
, pluralizing the subaltern voices heard in the discipline. In mainstream IR, efforts to naturalize historical discourses and accounts of knowledge further emboldens the discipline's Eurocentric roots and in turn, accounts of history. It is through Europe's 18th century international scientific exploration and
planetary consciousness Planetary consciousness is the idea that human beings are members of a planetary society of Earth as much as they are members of their nations, provinces, districts, islands, cities or villages. History In his 1906 book ''American Character'', a ...
that modern Eurocentrism has found itself at the core of mainstream knowledge production. If the concept of a
modern state A state is a centralized political organization that imposes and enforces rules over a population within a territory. There is no undisputed definition of a state. One widely used definition comes from the German sociologist Max Weber: a "stat ...
has been exported from Europe to the rest of the planet, one has to look to Europe and its history to understand modern state politics. Therefore, IR's Eurocentrism has been justified, locking in its political interests and obstructing the space for an understanding of past international political systems and the possibility of non-Eurocentric knowledge structures. Although a postcolonial lens of International Relations is becoming increasingly established, it is still marginalized in the wider field of International Relations, and there is no consensus among scholars on how to combine postcolonial studies with International Relations. Some scholars advocate for the establishment of a postcolonial International Relations study that employs
reflectivist Reflectivism is a broad umbrella label, used primarily in International Relations theory, for a range of theoretical approaches which oppose rational-choice accounts of social phenomena and, perhaps, positivism more generally. The label was popu ...
and
interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...
thinking and considers how non-Western thought might transform International Relations theory. Some others argue for an alternative outside of the field of International Relations because an integration of the two disciplines might limit postcolonial studies and reduce its challenging position in relation to the larger discipline. A middle-ground approach to the question suggests to keep an intellectual distance without completely disengaging from critique of International Relations. Proponents of this approach argue that a marginal disciplinary position for postcolonial thought provides advantages to pointing out academic and cultural erasure in knowledge production and the field of International Relations. They further insist that there is a need for a continued postcolonial critique of International Relations, since the field plays a significant role in the understanding and management of international affairs on the political stage. A revisionist approach to International Relations has historically been met with resistance because it would mean a confrontation with the Eurocentric understanding of the discipline. Through IR's discourse on the proliferation of an international society, the discipline does not depart from its logocentric tendencies.
Logocentrism "Logocentrism" is a term coined by the German philosopher Ludwig Klages in the early 1900s. It refers to the tradition of Western science and philosophy that regards words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality. It holds the ...
"assumes the priority of the first term and conceives the second in relation to it, as a complication, a negation, a manifestation, a disruption of the first."


Coloniality

Scholars in Postcolonialism address colonial and racial dynamics of
coloniality The coloniality of power is a concept interrelating the practices and legacies of European colonialism in social orders and forms of knowledge, advanced in postcolonial studies, decoloniality, and Latin American subaltern studies, most prominent ...
arguing that the structures of power have produced systems and hierarchal orders that have outlived formal colonialism. Cultures have been subsumed into these structures of power structure, making it critical for Postcolonialism in international relations to consider theories that have been undervalued as a result of the systematisation and prioritisation of particular knowledge. In the discipline of
International Relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...
, there are several critiques on the limits of international relations theory made from different lenses –
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
, constructivist, postmodernist, etc. A lens of
Postcolonialism Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...
challenges what Sanjay Seth calls a "centrality accorded to Europe as the historical source and origin of the international order". The Postcolonial critique requires scholars to investigate and confront the IR scientific knowledge structures that reflect and replicate the power dynamics that characterise the colonial experience. The critiques calls into question the
epistemic Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...
privilege granted to specific understandings of knowledge and the standards created from them. Postcolonialism "re-reads 'colonisation' as part of an essentially transnational and transcultural 'global' process – and it produces a decentred, diasporic or 'global' rewriting of earlier, nation-centred imperial grand narratives". Postcolonialism can bridges subject areas that are deemed unscientific, subjective and historically do not meet the standard of this Eurocentric discipline.


Impact on Culture

Postcolonialism is important to International Relations because largely absent from strands of scholarship like
realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...
and neo-realism are the accounts of cultural theory. In mainstream IR, variables like culture are argued have little to do with how states govern and interact. There are schools in IR like the English School, that do find cultural theory important international relations theory. Robert H. Jackson, Canadian author and academic, is a pluralist in the English School and in his book, ''The Global Covenant: Human Conduct in a World of States'', he established a way to organize international politics that appreciates cultural diversity:
"That widespread human proclivity creates a fundamental political problem: the mutual accommodation and orderly coexistence of those assorted political groups that share the finite territory of the planet and cannot usually retreat into splendid isolation. How can their relations be arranged and managed so that they can live side by side in an orderly and peaceful way and enjoy an opportunity to flourish domestically in their own distinctive ways? The international society of locally sovereign states based on the principles of equal sovereignty, territorial integrity, and non‐intervention can be understood as a practical institutional response to that problem. Understood in that way, international society is an arrangement to uphold human equality and human freedom around the world."


Capitalism in Postcolonial IR

The postcolonial approach to international relations advances the centrality of
colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...
in the making of the modern world. Postcolonial IR scholars argue that colonialism and its processes were necessary to the historic development of global capitalism, which largely defines our economic and political world today. The field of international political economy, in studying the relationship between politics and the global economy, has largely excluded the significance of colonialism, slavery, and race in explaining global capitalism. Despite
classical political economy Classical economics, classical political economy, or Smithian economics is a school of thought in political economy that flourished, primarily in Britain, in the late 18th and early-to-mid 19th century. Its main thinkers are held to be Adam Smit ...
gaining importance as a field at the height of transatlantic slavery, there is an absence of its importance in economic theory. The omission of colonial processes in the history that is told by IPE is reflective of the Western, liberal-modern worldview in which this scholarship is oriented. Historically, the very idea of the economy, as advanced by the likes of
Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——— ...
, was conceived of based on a national economy, which ignored the colonial processes taking place at the time. The social sciences in general have based explanations of capitalism in a historical context that does not consider colonialism as central to the development of the capitalist structure.


Transatlantic Economy

Despite insufficient attention in the social sciences, there is a body of critical scholarship written by African-American, Caribbean, and African scholars, who center the transatlantic slave trade in the historical development Europe, and of modern capitalism. Unfortunately, this work is sidelined from the mainstream international political economy literature, and is most often relegated to history departments or slavery studies. In 1938, Trinidadian scholar CLR James' book, The Black Jacobins, studied the centrality of the transatlantic slave system to Europe's economy. His work would influence Eric Williams in his book, Capitalism and Slavery in 1944.
W.E.B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...
would later build on Williams' argument in an analysis that considers the central role of Africa in world history. Contemporary historian and professor at the
University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...
, Joseph Inikori, argues that there is a direct relationship between slave-based economies and economic development in Britain. Central to Inikori's argument is how the origins of finance, a defining feature of the global capitalism we recognize today, are found in transatlantic slave-based trade. The major role of financial institutions in global capitalism can be traced to this period, where the development of banking, the stock exchange, insurance companies, and some of the first joint stock companies were created in the context of the transatlantic economy. Critical scholars of postcolonial IR argue that even within the field, insufficient attention has been paid to how colonialism is part of the global proliferation of capitalism. For instance, Edward Said in his book,
Culture and Imperialism ''Culture and Imperialism'' (1993), by Edward Said, is a collection of thematically related essays that trace the connection between imperialism and culture throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The essays expand the arguments of ''Orient ...
, refers to the abstraction of ''the West'', rather than naming capitalism in processes of
imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
. These scholars argue that the abstraction of the West that is used in postcolonial studies understates the central role of capitalism in the world system and the centrality of capitalism in colonialism. They emphasize the forced integration of colonized societies into a hegemonic, capitalist world system, and the destruction of existing ways of life as being central to the story of colonialism. Postcolonial critics problematize the tendency to view capitalism as a historical inevitability, and to equate capitalist development with progress that begins in Europe. When colonialism and transatlantic slavery are acknowledged in the literature, these processes are often placed in the distant past rather than as foundations of our current economic system. The colonization of the Americas by Spain, Portugal, Britain, and the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries created a new Atlantic economic system which rested on the violent capture and transport of over 13 million Africans. This slave-based production fueled the development of industry for Western Europe and directly structured the capitalist present. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the dispossession of indigenous people from their land and the extraction of their resources was foundational for the economic development of Europe. The development of capitalism was dependent on the simultaneous colonial dispossession in North America and the systematic trade of human beings from Africa. These processes continued beyond the postwar period, with the emergence of
welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...
s across Europe and in the US. While welfare states were touted as projects for equality under capitalism, the very possibility of them was based on the transfer of resources extracted from colonies. The colonial drain of former colonies resulted in them lagging behind their colonizers, with decolonization offering no reparations for these processes which built European countries and settler colonies.


Transnationalism

Modern global relations are built on the structure of capitalism, which continues patterns of colonialism through domination socially, politically, and culturally. In global capitalism, transnational corporations have decentered the nation-state as the bearers of economic power (Dirlik, 350). Central to global capitalism as well is an
international division of labour The division of labour is the separation of the tasks in any economic system or organisation so that participants may specialise (specialisation). Individuals, organizations, and nations are endowed with, or acquire specialised capabilities, and ...
and the globalization of the processes of production. This transnationalization of power has resulted in processes both of fragmentation and unity of nations under global capitalism. Despite Europe and the United States experiencing declining power in the world economy as nation-states, they continue to maintain domination through the hegemonic capitalist culture which is based on Eurocentric values. Eurocentrism can be attributed to capitalism, as it was the foundation of Europe's power and the motivating force for their exploits in globalization. On the other hand, fragmentation can be observed in the creation of supranational organizations like the
European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...
or North American Free Trade Zone, as well as cultural fragmentation seen in
multiculturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...
. The decline of the nation-state in place of
cosmopolitanism Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all human beings are members of a single community. Its adherents are known as cosmopolitan or cosmopolite. Cosmopolitanism is both prescriptive and aspirational, believing humans can and should be " world citizens ...
and
multiculturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...
has created a tension between globalization and postcolonialism. Postcolonial critics have labelled the multiculturalism espoused by global capitalism as illusionary, arguing that it is in fact Western cultural hegemony in disguise.


Notable Scholars


Frantz Fanon

Frantz Omar Fanon Frantz Omar Fanon (, ; ; 20 July 1925 – 6 December 1961), also known as Ibrahim Frantz Fanon, was a French West Indian psychiatrist, and political philosopher from the French colony of Martinique (today a French department). His works have be ...
, also known as Ibrahim Frantz Fanon, was a Martinican-born French West Indian political philosopher and psychiatrist. Having studied under fellow Martinican intellectual,
Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He founded the Par ...
, who coined the term, '' négritude'', and likewise was the founder of the Négritude movement, as a young man, Fanon's early intellectual ideas were in large part shaped by those of his mentor. In addition to the intellectual ideas of his mentor, Fanon's work was also in large part shaped by his personal experiences with white European racism under colonialism. Following the surrender of France to Germany in 1940 during the Second World War and the subsequent establishment of the collaborationist regime of
Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...
, Fanon's native Martinique fell under the occupation of the Vichy French navy. Fanon grew disgusted with the oppressive regime of the occupation, describing the soldiers of the Vichy French occupiers as having shed their masks and behaving like proper, "authentic racists." Upon successfully joining the army of Free France, Fanon was dispatched to the North African theatre war and later Metropolitan France itself. His period of military service led to experience even greater racism, which only further disgusted him. Upon his return to Martinique at the end of the war in 1945, Fanon assisted his former mentor, Césaire, in his bid as a parliamentary delegate of the
French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...
from Martinique to the National Assembly of French Fourth Republic in Paris. Thereafter, Fanon left for France to study psychiatry and medicine in
Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
.


Black Skin, White Masks

Initially composed as Fanon's would-be doctoral dissertation concerning negative psychological effects of colonial subjugation on Black people and in large part inspired by Fanon's own personal experiences with racism in France, Fanon's original manuscript was rejected before being published the following year in 1952. ''Black Skin, White Masks'' is a historical critique of the construction of Blackness and its origins in the colonisation process. Using psychoanalysis, Fanon dismantles colonial psychological construction of Blackness, giving explanation to the sentiments of inadequacy Black people feel in a White-dominated society or, even dependency on White society for some sense of validation. Fanon expands by asserting that for educated Black people, education and, by extension, assimilation, are tools of escaping their "inferior" status under White colonial regimes. In other words, under colonial regimes, Black people have been severed from their origins and rendered inferior. As a means of upward mobility in White colonial regimes, Black people will attempt to imitate the culture of their White colonisers as a means of being perceived as less inferior.


The Wretched of the Earth

''
The Wretched of the Earth ''The Wretched of the Earth'' (french: Les Damnés de la Terre) is a 1961 book by the philosopher Frantz Fanon, in which the author provides a psychoanalysis of the dehumanizing effects of colonization upon the individual and the nation, and dis ...
'' (1961) is a psychiatric analysis of the dehumanisation of colonial subject peoples under colonialism and is often most well-known for its defence of the use of violence by colonised peoples against their colonisers in the struggle to achieve liberation. Presented as an analysis of the impacts of colonialism on personal and societal mental health, ''The Wretched of the Earth'' is a sharp criticism of imperialism and nationalism. Fanon essentialises the indigenous population into three groups: the labourer, valued by the settler for his labour, the "colonised intellectual," valued by the settler for his assimilation into the settler's culture and having become a spokesperson for the settler's culture, and the ''
lumpenproletariat In Marxist theory, the ''Lumpenproletariat'' () is the underclass devoid of class consciousness. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels coined the word in the 1840s and used it to refer to the unthinking lower strata of society exploited by reactionary a ...
''. The third of these groups is borrowed from
Marxist theory Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew fro ...
. While the lumpenproletariat are characterised in Marxist theory as belonging to the lowest, most degraded stratum of the proletariat, those who have so little that they are outside of the system, the population that lacks class consciousness and thus is unable to participate in revolution, Fanon takes a departure from Marxist theory and instead asserts that it is the lumpenproletariat that will first exercise violence on the settler.


Edward Said

Edward Wadie Said (1935-2003) was a Palestinian-American cultural critic who worked as a literature professor at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. Said was a vocal public intellectual who sought to critique the prevailing representations of the
Orient The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the c ...
. To Said, literature is neither canonical nor secular; instead, the literary text "is something which has connections with many other aspects of the world – political, social, cultural." Said's writings and ideas laid the foundation for
postcolonial studies Postcolonialism is the Critical theory, critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More speci ...
and would later implicitly transcend postcolonial
international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...
(IR).


''Orientalism'' and the Groundwork for Postcolonial Studies

Said established his prominence as a cultural critic through his 1978 ''magnum opus'', ''Orientalism''. In articulating the text's pivotal ideas, he relied upon the influences of
Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...
and
Antonio Gramsci Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , , ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist, linguist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a ...
. Said was informed by Foucault's discourse analysis and power-knowledge to illustrate the power of European culture through its management and production of the Orient. Likewise, Said grounded ''Orientalism'' in Gramsci by drawing attention to the overlap between colonial ideology and
capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
. ''Orientalism'' built upon previous scholarship to codify Said's central tenets and help contribute to the emergence of the postcolonial discipline.


Connection between Postcolonialism and International Relations

Said's postcolonial discourse exhibited characteristic pertinent to international relations. According to Said, Orientalism is "a considerable dimension of modern political-intellectual culture, and as such has less to do with the Orient than it does with 'our' world." The international dynamic to his literature persisted throughout his 1993 work, ''
Culture and Imperialism ''Culture and Imperialism'' (1993), by Edward Said, is a collection of thematically related essays that trace the connection between imperialism and culture throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The essays expand the arguments of ''Orient ...
''. Said explored the lasting implications of British
imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
and the international struggle for decolonization. Literature, like
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...
's
Heart of Darkness ''Heart of Darkness'' (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad in which the sailor Charles Marlow tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior. The novel ...
, demonstrated a means to convey the global anti-imperialist struggle and the post-imperial reconstruction. Scholars today argue that Said and his central themes transcend international discourses. To
Mark Salter Mark Salter (born 1955) is an American speechwriter from Davenport, Iowa, known for his collaborations with United States Senator John McCain on several nonfiction books as well as on political speeches. Salter also served as McCain's chief of s ...
, Said's questions of "power, domination, culture, imperialism, identity and territory" are central to IR and its subsequent criticisms. Moreover, as Bill Ashcroft and
Pal Ahluwalia Pal Ahluwalia is Kenyan academic and Vice-Chancellor of University of the South Pacific. Ahluwalia was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and educated at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada and Flinders University in Australia. He worked as a professor ...
write, Said himself was obsessed with location and fascinated with cultural diversity and heterogeneity. In borrowing from architectural studies, Said located himself within what he called an
interstitial space An interstitial space or interstice is a space between structures or objects. In particular, interstitial may refer to: Biology * Interstitial cell tumor * Interstitial cell, any cell that lies between other cells * Interstitial collagenase, ...
. This "space in between a Palestinian colonial past and an American imperial present" implicitly bridged his ideas within the international context.


Neglect in Mainstream International Relations

Said's postcolonial discourse has been largely neglected in canonical IR. Mainstream IR scholarship emphasizes
neo-liberalism Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...
,
power politics Power politics is a theory in international relations which contends that distributions of power and national interests, or changes to those distributions, are fundamental causes of war and of system stability. The concept of power politics pro ...
, and
national security National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military atta ...
. The discipline's longstanding adherence to realist and
liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...
IR theories limit Said's impact on the field. To Sheila Nair, Said's "marginalisation in the IR 'canon' parallels the disenfranchisement, exile, marginality, and oppression he addressed in his work." Mark Salter writes that while ''Orientalism's'' themes pertained to postcolonial IR, its effects on IR discourses were largely silent until the 1990s. It was not until scholars like Phillip Darby, A.J. Paolini, and Sankaran Krishna explicitly bridged postcolonialism with IR that Said's work formally crossed disciplines. In their 1994 article "Bridging International Relations and Postcolonialism," Darby and Paolini write that ''Orientalism'' not only failed to "dent the casings of international relations, it received only occasional mention in the literature." Said's emphasis on the "counter-history of the European literary tradition" contributed to the text being ruled out of the mainstream IR.


Implicit Challenges to Mainstream International Relations

Despite the neglect by mainstream IR, scholars argue that Said's central themes implicitly challenge conventional IR discourses.


= ''Power-knowledge''

= In mainstream IR theories such as realism, power derives from the state and its tangible forces. For example, in realism, power relates directly to the
high politics In political science (and within the subfield of international relations in particular), the concept high politics covers all matters that are vital to the very survival of the state: namely national and international security concerns. It is ofte ...
of military security and strategic issues. But as Ashcroft and Ahluwalia write, Said articulates that power operates within knowledge: "the processes by which the West 'knows' the Orient have been a way of exerting power on it." Mark Salter claims that mainstream IR theory will benefit from Said's instance on studying power dynamics through imagination and identity. He references terms like the "
global war on terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant I ...
, Anti-globalization movement#:~:text=Anti-globalization advocates urge that,standards are attached to liberalization., anti-globalization, [and the] Clash of Civilizations, clash of civilizations" as problematic concepts that Said's discourse on power-knowledge can better examine.


= ''Traveling Theory''

= Said's traveling theory asserts that "theories sometimes 'travel' to other times and situations." Along the way, these theories lose their original power and rebelliousness the farther they travel from the place of their inception. Mark Salter writes that traveling theory "has a particular resonance in IR, where the universalizing claims of 'general theory' are called into question." Mainstream IR, with its emphasis on the "universal, rational and global," assumes theoretical applicability within any time and space. But traveling theory contends that IR's Western-centric theoretical frameworks may not possess the same analytical power within other regions.


= ''Contrapuntal Reading''

= In borrowing from Classical period (music), Western classical music, contrapuntal reading refers to the re-reading of literature from the perspective of the colonized to highlight the submerged voices within Western canon, canonical texts. According to Said, we begin to read texts "with a simultaneous awareness both of the metropolitan history that is narrated and of those other histories against which the dominating discourse acts." A contrapuntal reading of mainstream IR makes visible the erasures and silences that IR has rendered possible. Academics like Geeta Chowdhry see contrapuntality as a means to "engender the articulation of exiled voices into IR." While mainstream IR is preoccupied with "the state as the unit of analysis"31 and the absence of "considerations of gender and ethnicity," "a contrapuntal story about IR narrates a different international relations into existence." Thus, the voices of the colonized emerge as primary agents rather than as passive actors within the colonial story.


Beyond Said

Edward Said influenced various postcolonial scholars who were later informed by his works to further criticize mainstream IR. Homi K. Bhabha, Homi Kharshedji Bhabha is an Indian scholar and critical theorist. In a 1995 Artforum interview, Bhabha noted that Said was the writer who most influenced his work. But despite his praise, Bhabha considered Said's interpretation of Orientalism#:~:text=In art history, literature and,artists from the Western world., Orientalism overly unifying; thus, he amended the concept to be "ruptured and hybrid." Bhabha's central idea of hybridity built upon his criticism of Said to assert that cultures are not discrete phenomena; instead, they are always changing and in contact with one another. David Huddart writes that hybridity goes beyond the postcolonial and exhibits implications for discourses of Nationalism#:~:text=Nationalism holds that each nation,rightful source of political power., nationalism. Bhabha uses hybridity to "complicate divisions between Western and non-Western identities." While mainstream IR adheres to the common definition of the Nation state, nation-state, Bhabha built upon Said to reject "the well-defined and stable identity associated with the national form." Other scholars arrived at their theories irrespective of Said. Nevertheless, some postcolonialists argue that his work combines with other scholars to fill the gaps in postcolonial IR discourse. V. Y. Mudimbe, Valentin-Yves Mudimbe is a Congolese French philosopher and historian. Ali Mazrui writes that Mudimbe's central thesis is about the invention of Africa whereas Said's is about the invention of the Orient. Despite arising from distinct origins, both scholars challenge the benevolence of Western epistemology while applying it to different global contexts. To Said, Orientalism is "a discipline representing institutionalized Western knowledge of the Orient."41 Meanwhile, in ''The Invention of Africa'', Mudimbe states that "Western interpreters [...] have been using categories and conceptual systems which depend on a Western epistemological order." Power dynamics in mainstream IR depend heavily on the state's preferences and capabilities. Mudimbe, like Said, asserts that power is instead situated within knowledge; the latter derives from Age of Enlightenment, Western Enlightenment and related modes of inquiry.


W.E.B Du Bois

A notable scholar in the study of Postcolonialism (international relations), postcolonial international relations (IR) was W. E. B. Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois. Du Bois was a black American man born February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, just after the end of the American Civil War. Du Bois died August 22, 1963, in Accra Ghana. Du Bois's scholarship encapsulated how colonial forces work to undermine the black community. Du Bois co-founded a group called the Niagara Movement, a group of Neoabolitionism (race relations), neo-abolitionists challenging
Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
, black disenfranchisement, and racial violence. Du Bois co-founded the NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) along with other notable African Americans. Du Bois's ideology left an everlasting legacy on Postcolonialism, postcolonial studies. Du Bois experienced the dawn of the 20th century, the first century in American history to outlaw slavery. America was still hostile to the idea of respect for the dignity of Black humanity. Black people around America may have been free from the shackles of slavery; nonetheless, the battle was far from over. Black segregation reigned through the United States and brought forth different institutional forms of oppression. As white supremacy persisted, Du Bois's literature and scholarship were centered around the "Color line (racism), colour line". Racial segregation led to many debates between African American leaders regarding the best course of action for the uplifting of the race. The "colour line" can be described as the division of people according to racial classifications and was rooted in America. Du Bois concluded that one of the ways to combat the oppressive nature of the racial hierarchy was through higher education. Education was crucial for matching the Negro's genius to that of Whites, according to Du Bois. He became a pioneer and advocate for ensuring black people received the highest forms of education. Du Bois's early works such as ''The Philadelphia Negro'' showcased his thought process of having a small group of educated, middle-class individuals, the The Talented Tenth, Talented Tenth to be the leaders to lift black people towards success in a White world. Du Bois was a part of a select group of scholars that author Charisse Burden-Stelly would say are embracing "Radical Black Peace Activism" during the era of the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
. Radical Black Peace Activism encompassed the interconnection between the cessation of global conflict, disarmament, non-proliferation, racial equality. Du Bois harnessed the shared principles and was well known for speaking to these points. Du Bois saw a link between the mistreatment of black people through the colonial systems of power and sought a change. Du Bois "argued for the necessity of antiracism and anti-imperialism alongside antiwar activism." Du Bois helped in pioneering the connection between racism, colonial imperial and a just end to the war. All three of the concepts interworked into the work as a united form of oppression. Du Bois sought to work through colonialism through the means of Radical Black Peace Activism. Du Bois's activism and literature was focused around the effect of antiwar politics enframed the material and political realities of dispossessed persons.


Kwame Nkrumah

Kwame Nkrumah (21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician and a revolutionary. Serving as Ghana's first Prime Minister (1957–1960) and President (1960–1966), Nkrumah led the Gold Coast (British colony) independence from the United Kingdom in 1957. Through his devotion to pan-Africanism and socialism, Nkrumah's works and principles substantially contributed to the development of Postcolonialism (international relations) emphasising the continuation of Neo-colonialism as the 'Last Stage of Imperialism' where the economies of independent states remain directed and exploited by former colonisers. In turn, Nkrumah's prime ministry and presidency saw a commitment to forming a united independent African continent, as seen with his successful forged alliances with African nations, such as Guinea and Mali in aims to create a league of united African states under the Organisation of African Unity.


Emphasis of colonial relations in shaping power

Postcolonialism centralizes colonial and imperial structures in the formation of academic knowledge and practices, including the dominant theoretical framework of political ideals, such as the liberal nation-state and citizenship. International Relations, as a result, is seen to not 'explain international politics', but rather 'parochially celebrate and defend or promote the West as the proactive subject of 'world politics'. This imbalanced power dynamics, as a result, has left an implicit Euro-centrism in theoretical and empirical literatures which postcolonialism critically aims to rid. Nkrumah's Pan-Africanism aimed to explore the theoretical and practical tensions between the non-Western conceptions of citizenship and nation with the dominance of Western modernity. Political Pan-Africanism, for Nkrumah, became means to exploring its interactions with the globally pervasive political principles of popular sovereignty and national self-determination, ultimately contributing to postcolonialism IR through attempting to deorientalize and deparochialize IR's liberal conceptions.


Re-claiming identity

Furthermore, Nkrumah's Pan-Africanism noted that the common history of colonialism and enslavement interrupted the expression of the shared heritage of the African people, resulting in a generated cultural confusion which could only be resolved through the 'ethical imposition of the African conscience'. Here, it is clear that such notions contributes to postcolonial IR as it dives deeper into the cultural and psychological effects of colonialism in the mis-shaping of a nation-state identity, left in the hands of former colonisers to complete. With postcolonialism emerging as a theoretical approach that aimed to provide a discourse for those who had been 'stripped of their authority, culture, and history', its lens on overcoming relations of domination is also evident in Nkrumah's vision of Pan-Africanism. In particular, Nkrumah focused upon applying an Afro-centric perspective of history in order to revive an African national consciousness subverted by imperialism. Founding Pan-Africanism ideology in the unity and oneness of the African people, Nkrumah believed that the only way to overcome false consciousness of the oppressed was to unite against neo-colonialism. This vision of a 'United States of Africa', which required required that each African nation forfeited their national autonomy, aimed to combine their economic and industrial development with all of Africa and follow the principle of positive neutralism. Ultimately, the likes of President Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea agreed to this vision, leading to the two nations sharing an informal agreement after the Independence of Guinea in 1958. This pledge included creating a union of West African states and solidify their pan-African efforts in th
Conakary Agreements
Later on, following a meeting with President Sékou Touré and President Modibo Keïta of Mali in April 1961, all signed a charter which formally established a tripartite Union of African States. This charter envisioned a common diplomatic representation and the creation of committees to draw up arrangements for harmonising economic policies for their countries.


Capitalism shaping the colonial world

Postcolonial IR scholars intertwine capitalism and colonialism as serving each other, since colonialism is defined as having the 'capitalist economic system' which is 'based on the desire for profit through using raw materials and human labor in the colonized countries'. The understandings of capitalism in postcolonialism particularly relies upon Nkrumah's conceptutalisation of neo-colonialism, which demonstrated the ongoing imperialist conditions that former colonized remain subject to, exploitation of their foreign capital. Developed during the Cold War environment, Nkrumah believed that the major political weapon of the capitalist-imperialist was the false consciousness, his work reflected the ongoing transformations to the traditional structures of imperialism and territorial colonialization in the West. In following the theoretical framework of economic imperialism by Vladimir Lenin, Nkrumah describes imperialist nations as deliberately perpetuating African poverty and structural economic backwards, whilst Western nations enrich themselves at the expense of the African economies and peoples. Since the 'dangers of Communist subversion' became a growing concern in affecting former colonized nations, Nkrumah describes the West's realization of this occurring as 'two-edged', as it brought notice to the possibility of a change in regime to socialism. Nkrumah intended to fend off imperialist influence through a 'scientific socialist' form of unity, acting as a further reaction along with postcolonialism IR against global capitalism's dominance of economic modernity. Whilst Nkrumah's vision of a united African society was 'explicitly consonant with Marxist–Leninist theory', Nkrumah still contributed to postcolonialism IR on capitalism through extended the concept of class to a global scale beyond economics; identifying a global class of oppressed peoples, rather than focusing on the traditional class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Therefore, the acting up of the West, through means such as foreign aid which Nkrumah denounces, meant imperialist nations could maintain their influence and monopolise to dominate African nations and seize their materials. Ultimately for Nkrumah, the developed countries in the Global North succeeded through 'exporting their internal problems and transferring the conflict between rich and power from the national to the international stage'. Therefore, postcolonialism and his vision of Pan-Africanism aligned in viewing class struggle as the foundations of imperialism, seeing class alliance amongst Africans as the necessary revolution to solve this.


Critiques of contribution

Professor Ali Mazrui criticised the persona of Nkrumah in 'Nkrumah: The Leninist Czar', as he criticised Nkrumah's efforts to present himself as the 'African Lenin', seen with his belief in the organisation of the colonial masses. For Mazuri, the theory of neocolonialism proposed is nothing more than an attempt to resolve the difficulty surrounding his coup d'état by the National Liberation Council in 1966. This theory is seen as a recycling of the works of Lenin's attempts to carry Karl Marx's analysis of capitalism a stage further, as Nkrumah only contributes to this through attempting to carry Lenin's analysis of imperialism a level higher. From here, Mazuri proclaims that this new 'phenomenon' of neo-colonialism lacked the inner constraint accountability; it was the most irresponsible form of imperialism.


= Counter-critiques

= Omafume Onoge and Kinou. A. Gaching'a depicted Mazuri's critique as an 'excellent illustration' of the misdirected brilliance of African scholarship. They discredit Mazuri's representation of Nkrumah as a puppet of Lenin, as he dismisses non-congruent facts in order to preserve his elegant model. More credit, they argue, needs to be given to the work that Nkrumah has done for the African continent, whilst concluding that Mazuri either did not understand the implications of the centrality of neo-colonialism for Nkrumah's political and action actions.


Jalal Al-e Ahmad

Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, Jalal Al-e Ahmad, an Iranian writer, social critic, and ethnographer, was one of the most prominent critics of Western modernization and cultural influence in the country's history. Though never formally colonized, Iran was a constant target for the imperial British and Russian empires during the Qajar dynasty, Qajar and later the Pahlavi dynasty, Pahlavi dynasties. After growing up in a devoutly religious family in Tehran, Al-e Ahmad initially rejected the clerical path his family had determined for him and instead joined the Marxist Tudeh Party of Iran, whose ideals of Third World socialism, Third World Socialism introduced Al-e Ahmad to notable anticolonial thinkers and influenced his later works. Disillusioned by the Party's Soviet allegiances, he turned towards the anticolonial, secular nationalists led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Though his Nationalization of the Iranian oil industry, nationalization of Iran's oil industry in 1951 remains a notable instance of Iranian anticolonial resistance, Mosaddegh was later deposed in a 1953 Iranian coup d'état#:~:text=The 1953 Iranian coup d,Pahlavi on 19 August 1953, Western-backed coup. The fall of the nationalists from power saw Al-e Ahmad lose interest in organized politics and return to literature, poetry, and anthropology. He would eventually discover a renewed interest in Islam and its role in Iranian culture and history — completing his ideological journey. These political transformations reflected the complexity of Iranian politics at the time and led to him being referred to as "a socialist, an anticolonial nationalist, and a towering Muslim intellectual." It was during this time that he wrote his most seminal work: ''Gharbzadegi''. Originally coined as a term by Iranian philosopher Ahmad Fardid, ''gharbzadegi'' has been variously translated as ''Occidentosis'', ''West-struck-ness'', or ''Westoxification'', and refers to what Al-e Ahmad saw as the malignant influence of Western systems of economics, education, and culture and the transformation of Iran into a dependent consumer of Western goods. Published in 1962 as ''Occidentosis: A Plague From the West'', Al-e Ahmad likens occidentosis to a disease, an "accident from without, spreading in an environment rendered susceptible to it." He delineates two camps: the Occident — the industrialized nations of Europe and North America — and the "hungry nations" of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East that provide the raw materials that the Occident transforms into purchasable goods. Occidentosis describes the era in which the East — the hungry nations of the world — have not yet "developed the machine", and instead are subservient to the Western nations that sell their refined products back to them. However, Al-e Ahmad's analysis goes beyond material concerns, as he also views international organizations such as the United Nations and UNESCO as tools of the West. The days of old were characterized by colonial and imperial contact being made and the first Western emissaries holding great influence over the East through their goods. At the time of writing ''Gharbzadegi'', Al-e Ahmad claims that national liberation movements and the nationalization of resources have forced Western countries to shift their tactics. Now, the Western emissaries arrive in more "acceptable garb" as consultants and advisors for organizations like UNESCO. This change also saw the West desire more than just the raw materials they had been extracting and importing — they began also gathering and studying the "abundant spiritual goods" of the East. The myths, religions, cultures, and anthropologies of the Eastern world became the object of interest of Western academics and intellectuals. Despite this, Al-e Ahmad contends that occidentosis has caused many Iranians to ignore and minimize their own art, music, traditions, and histories. "Why shouldn't the nations of the East wake up to see what treasures they hold?", he asks.24 While critics have accused Jalal Al-e Ahmad of being against modernity, some scholars contend that his criticism was instead focused on
coloniality The coloniality of power is a concept interrelating the practices and legacies of European colonialism in social orders and forms of knowledge, advanced in postcolonial studies, decoloniality, and Latin American subaltern studies, most prominent ...
. As one academic stated, Al-e Ahmad "was critical of colonial modernity; he was not antimodern." His critiques of modernization theory place him among the ranks of Third-Worldism#:~:text=Third-Worldism is a political,States and the Soviet Union, Third World intellectuals who desired sovereignty and self-determination over imposed "modernization." Al-e Ahmad opposed not all production, but ''Western'' production that replaced native industries. Scholars have compared Al-e Ahmad's work to many key figures in the field of postcolonialism and postcolonial international relations. His criticisms of modernization theory have been compared to the maintenance of the "colour line" that
W.E.B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...
spoke of. The "double consciousness" outlined by the American sociologist in ''The Souls of Black Folk'' is another parallel that has been drawn with the work of Al-e Ahmad. Du Bois describes this phenomenon as a "sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others." Al-e Ahmad claimed that Iranians faced a similar dilemma; their minds were occupied by thoughts of being witnessed by the West. He also saw strains of Western racial dominance reflected in the modernization and reform programs initiated by the Pahlavi regime, particularly in their emphasis on Aryan purity and untainted Persian history. Al-e Ahmad's contributions to anticolonialism are also displayed through portions of ''Gharbzadegi'' where he writes about the solidarity between the "hungry" Eastern nations. Mimicking the language used by the West, he writes, "... we — the Iranians — fall into the category of the backward and developing nations: we have more points in common with them than points of difference." In summarizing his view of international relations, he says, "I speak of solidarity with progressive human societies." ''Gharbzadegi'' represented a turning point in Iranian political thought, particularly in regards to Iran's understanding of itself as a postcolonial entity. While many anticolonial and anti-imperial critiques had been written, they were often still created as a product relative to and derivative of Western thought. Jalal Al-e Ahmad's references to Iranian culture, heritage, politics, and history represented a more authentic critique of the international order.


Criticisms and defense

Mainstream IR stories are purposefully limited in scope in terms of statecentric modelling, cataloguing and predicting in formal terms; and like other postpositivist theories, they do not attempt to form an overarching theory as after all, postpositivism is defined as ''incredulity towards metanarratives''. This is replaced by a sensitivity and openness to the unintended consequences of metanarratives and their negative impacts on the most marginalised actors in IR. In defence, postpositivists argue that metanarratives have proven unworkable. Approaches such as Postcolonial IR theories, although limited in scope, provide for much greater possibilities in the normative work of developing an emancipatory politics, formulating foreign policy, understanding conflict, and making peace, which takes into account gender, ethnicity, other identity issues, culture, methodology and other common issues that have emerged from problem-solving, rationalist, reductive accounts IR.


See also

*International relations theory


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Postcolonial International Relations International relations theory Postcolonialism