Introduction
In the 1990s, when other fields failed to predict some major events of the twentieth century, including the struggle to decolonise, post-colonialism entered the field of International Relations. Postcolonialism can be surmised as the theory of International Relations which uses the effect of colonialism to describe the conditions of countries today, with a focus on personal information from its peoples. 'Post-colonial' refers to the analysis of colonialism and anti-colonialism. 'Postcolonial' is used to indicate the analysing of the current era of International Relations as the postcolonial era. The relevance of postcolonial theory for the study of International Relations will be discussed and analysed.
The increasing relevance
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Its theories have been shaped through many academic disciplines, including literary studies, social history, French philosophy, and psychoanalysis. Great powers held colonies, but those colonies were not studied unless they caused difficulties for individual great powers. The histories, peoples, and cultures in Third World countries were ignored by International Relations until the 1980s. Post-colonial/postcolonial studies improved International Relations knowledge. It has been joined by feminist analysis and movements of peoples that reverse the usual direction taken during the colonial
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s the United States (U.S.) pursued an aggressive policy of expansionism extending its political and economic influence around the world. What is imperialism? Why this policy was adopted and how it was rationalized. The major events that took place and which countries of the world the U.S. became involved due to this policy. Finally, we will see, not everyone supported foreign affairs by the U.S. and in 1899 they founded the American Anti-Imperialist League. I will discuss their view of Imperialism and discuss the outcome of the foreign policy going into the twentieth century.
Throughout history, many powerful nations interfered with nations that were weaker than they were. This form of sabotaging a nation is economic, political or cultural life is called as imperialism. Imperialism is often separated into two sects. The first one is old imperialism, which was the period from the 1500s to the 1800s, where European nation started to colonize many areas such as the Americas, and parts of Southeast Asia. On the other hand, the new imperialism was the period between the years “1870-1914”, where Europe became more focused on expanding their land into Asia and Africa. Imperialism had many pros and cons. In addition, it also had many causes led by the feeling of nationalism.
The process of decolonization proved to have its own struggles within those who were seeking their independence from imperialist powers. Evidently, these nationalist movements were different in many regions, but they generally shared the sentiment that “Westernization” had taken something away from them. This proved to be the case in Africa and Asia, where the colonization movement from imperialist powers was of strong presence, and that had trouble weakening during and after the Cold War. Part of this struggle was due to the forms of government that were imposed, and because many of these colonies had been in this position for such long time that they were not able to predict upcoming conflicts after their independence. However, in many cases, the problems were more complicated and often implied a combination of reaction to westernization and internal conflicts. Undoubtedly,
The discipline of international relations (IR) is one that has witnessed a multitude of variations and shifts. It has produced a fair amount of debate between academics within the international relations scholarship. Due to a plethora of circumstances scholars have subjected the traditional rationalist theories of neorealism and neoliberalism to critical re-evaluations. As a result, constructivism is a concept that has emerged as an alternative approach to dominant IR theories. It focuses on the importance of state identities in defining and gaining knowledge of state interests, actions and goals. There are theorists who purport that the rise of constructivism allows for a further understanding of another international theory, feminism.
Throughout history around the world, imperialism took a big role. Imperialism had positive and negative effects. The Age of Imperialism took place between 1800-1914. During this time, Europe played a big role and was a major world leader. Many European countries had set up their colonies in many parts of the world such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Because of the European imperialism, they grew in power, making them a big part of the world’s power. They are also gaining natural resources and land. However, although Europe is gaining all the positive effects of this imperialism, the other countries--Asia, Africa, and Latin America--had an entirely different effect. Instead of gaining power like the Europeans, these countries and their people are being mistreated. They had all their land, culture, freedom, respect taken away from them. In addition to these negative effects, there was also racism involved.
Imperialism was an extremely big deal throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There were many occurrences where people who were involved in imperialism would succeed, but there were also failures. Throughout this time period, powers from Europe, the United States and Japan all contributed to both the positive and negative impacts of imperialism. These impacts affected parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Some of the few people that made huge changes during the “Age of Imperialism” are Dadabha Naoroji, J.A. Hobson, Mary Kingsley, Edgar Canisius, Albert Beveridge, and Rudyard Kipling.
The study of British colonialism is a rather new field with much to discuss and a lot more to debate. The recent recognition of new nation-states that were once under the control of Britain was a growing phenomenon and one that continues to play a large role in today’s global politics. Since the rather recent period of these new nations, new study’s have been done into the history of a) the peoples that inhabited the land before Britain, b) the way Britain occupied and control and land, and now c) post-Britain. This is a growing topic in the historical field because seventy-five years ago there was no thought that Britain would relieve control of India or Nigeria. That is why post-British colonialism is important to today, because it is a
Classical Colonialism occurs when metropolitan nations fuse new territories or peoples through means which are virtually involuntary such as war, conquest, capture, and additional forms of enforcement and control. (Biauner 1987,150) Classical colonialism is distinguished by economic exploitation, forced entry, and cultural imperialism through the establishment of new institutions and methods of thought. (
Erez Manela’s The Wilsonian Moment Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism is a monograph that attempts to reconstruct the story of colonial world at the end of Wilsonian moment. The book’s title, The Wilsonian Moment is alluding to the crucial period that lasted from autumn of 1918 to spring of 1919, when the Allied victory were confident that President Woodrow Wilson’s ideas for a new world will become successful until the terms of the Treaty of Versailles became public and the failure of the Wilson’s promise became evident. Erez Manela says, “The focus of this book is on the specific significance of Wilsonian moment in the colonial world, defined broadly as the dependent or semi dependent territories that encompassed at the time almost all of Asia and Africa”(8). Manela demonstrates how Woodrow Wilson’s post-war rhetoric on self-determination, a concept that firmly believes all nations should be able to determine for their futures and governance impacted several anti colonial movements by using Egypt, India, China, and Korea as case studies. In these case studies, Manela explicitly exhibits how colonized countries received and interpreted Wilson’s rhetoric, and applied it to their local struggle for independence. These four countries actively fought for their independence, but their arguments were dismissed at the Paris Peace Conference for different reasons. Manela tells us,” The “revolt against the West,” emerged “not from the
The nature of imperialism in the modern world has drastically changed; it has transcended from explicit military strength to economic, political, cultural and linguistic dimensions (Haque, 2011). Many anti-globalisation scholars argue that contemporary imperialist powers have turned to symbolic means of control, which are facilitated by the integration of Western-dominated global telecommunications systems and the
Have you ever thought about studying international relations? What is international relations? International relations is an interdisciplinary course which encompasses a lot of subjects such as history, economics, politics and sociology. One may argue that it is an intricate course; however, one has to bear in mind that international relations is a gratifying course which has a lot of benefits for those students who study international relations but in this essay only two major ones will be introduced.
In this essay the conservative theories of Realism and Liberalism will be compared and contrasted in connection with the study of International Relations. Post World War I International Relations was established as a formal discipline with the eructation of the Woodrow Wilson Chair at the University of Wales, given the worldwide urgency to create international order and stability in the wake of the war. Realist in International Relations view human nature and the states behaviour practically and truthfully, adopting a matter-of-fact attitude instead of visualising how the political institutions ought to function. Liberalists
At the time when developed nations were colonizing less developed nations around the 1870s, the age of Imperialism began. Referring to the time were nations such as the United States, Germany, and Japan began to employ imperialist doctrines to their governance, yet imperialist tendencies had been around for centuries. Even before imperialism there was mercantilism, and colonialism, which consisted of an extension of a nation's sovereignty over territory and people outside its own boundaries, to
What effect has decolonization brought? The decolonized nations cope with their own course of action on all fronts - economic, social, political and cultural. Even as they struggle to rid themselves of the shackles of the erstwhile influences, they try to regain touch with their ‘golden past’ and also believe in a brighter future. With centuries of economic exploitation to undo, it does seem to be a daunting task. However, colonial theorists like Frantz Fanon believe that the colony regaining its place in the order, returning to its hierarchic origin is but inevitable.
Social constructivism emerged in the mid-1990s, after the end of Cold War. Although it has been seen as a 'young ' theory in International Relations, it has challenged the two dominant theories – realism and liberalism. It also provided new theoretical openings to understand the International Relations. Social constructivists tried to establish a “middle ground” between rationalism and poststructuralism. Unlike realism, social constructivism claims that material capabilities of states, such as military power, is not the only essential factor in International Relations. It also concentrates on other non-material factors, including identity, culture, ideas, norms, institutions and interests. Moreover, it believes that the interaction of structures and agency is a key in explaining the international politics. However, not every social constructivists agree with the same themes of the theory. There is contestation. According to Ted Hopf (1998), social constructivism can be divided into two categories. The first type is the conventional constructivism, in other words, the 'weak ' constructivism. The second type is the critical constructivism, which is also called poststructuralism. In this essay, I am going to discuss the limitations of the weak form of social constructivism from the perspectives of other approaches, such as the critical constructivism and rationalism. The other approaches can indicate the deficiency of the weak form of social constructivism.