Chapter 12

Postcolonialism

• Postcolonial writings highlight that in celebrating reason, science and technology and in wanting to write the history of humanity in their own image, the Europeans have degraded the culture, arts and science in non-European societies. Without the permission of non-Europeans, they have assigned themselves as the keepers of values, desires and interests. Academic disciplines have contributed to this process.

• Postcolonialism is a term used to characterise a multiplicity of perspectives, traditions and approaches from different regions, historical contexts and academic disciplines. It refers to thought that contests the Western rationalist, humanist and universalist modes of thinking. It rejects thought characterized by assumptions of ‘native essentialism’ and highlights the importance of alternative conceptions of society, law and morality.

• Postcolonialism points to the forms of violence that went with the European creation of international order. Postcolonialism, drawing on antecedent revolts by colonial populations, rejects the ‘pre-ordained’ world presented by the international order created by the West.

• Postcolonialism notes that knowledge claims never give a full account of events: it is important to examine critically the seemingly neutral academic institutions for colonial structures of power. Postcolonialism is sceptical of everyday knowledge, expert knowledge as well as Western critical theorists’ efforts to save the rest of the world. These forms of knowledge tend to hide implicit justifications of imperialism.

• Postcolonialism does not seek to entirely reject the Western canon of thought, but it advances critical examinations of reason, history and culture within this tradition. In reading Kant, for example, postcolonialists note the prejudices characteristic of this cosmopolitan’s thinking.

• Three conclusions arise from postcolonial readings of the Western canon:

It is not sufficient to simply embrace categories such as international order, society or ethics: we must also note the political effects of these terms derivative from colonial history.
There are double movements of presence and erasure in Western moral debates. For example, while West sees itself as the leader in human rights, it fails to mention the role of Western universalism and morality in Nazism, Fascism and Stalinism.
Postcolonialism, although, does not dispense of reason and universalism, is sceptical of the objectivism and neutrality implied by Western disciplinary narratives.

• With regard to International Relations, postcolonialism harbours a suspicion of the universalisms and rationalizations of the liberals, and the mutuality and co-constitutions of norms emphasised by the constructivists.

• Postcolonialism is associated with the study of identity and culture. They study identities in their fluid contexts. They see both dangers and opportunities in the transformations in identity and culture.

• Said’s Orientalism emphasised the techniques of power at work in Western language and representations of the Middle East. Orientalism illustrates the struggles over knowledge and power in representations of non-European societies.

• One can utilise Said’s framework in analysing today’s images of the Middle East. Discourses of terrorism characteristic of the war on terror feed into three key tenets of Orientalism, which present a particular view of history and distort historical co-dependencies and cultural nuances:

• Existence of separate hierarchical spheres of civilisations.
Need to defend Western values against corrupt ones.
Necessity of moderate Arabs to join the Western framework.

• Postcolonial thinking requires that one is able to challenge disciplinary common sense in IR. Empires have often been seen as positive enterprises, as expressed by the notion of Pax Britannica. Postcolonialism notes that the experiences of the colonized differ substantially from those of the colonizers.

• A colonial understanding of nuclear non-proliferation treaties, for example, reveals that these treaties, while inhibiting the ability of weaker post-colonial states to gain arms, allow the proliferation of nuclear arms in the possession of the western states to go unnoticed. A postcolonial critic, while opposed to III World attempts to gain nuclear weapons, would challenge the hegemonic reflexes that disguise interests of some as common good.

• Case study. Postcolonialism challenges the European colonial order and its truth claims. Its aims have been present in the Bandung conference, the Non-Aligned Movement as well as the UN proclamation of self-determination. These motivated decisions by Third World leaders, including Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal.

• Case study continued. The accounts of Suez Canal war still read as stories of superpower balance of power and recklessness of third world nationalism. Nasser’s decision to annul the European and American agreement that allowed all parties access to the canal is commonly portrayed as recklessly ambitious and as contrary to international law.

• Case study continued. To postcolonialism, Britain’s, France’s and Israel’s decision to wage war on Egypt was illogical, and reckless in its own way. While most other canals located within countries can be claimed by the states themselves, in the case of Suez we are expected to accept that Egypt had no right over the Suez Canal, which was constructed through the forced labour of Egyptians. Nasser was right that the internationalization of Suez was a throwback to European notions of imperial sovereignty and went against the post-war notion of self-determination.

• Postcolonialism seeks contingent and empathic understandings of human trajectories and favours egalitarianism, social justice and solidarity and a different kind of universalism based on deliberation and contestation amongst diverse political entities. It notes the failure of the international system to fully include postcolonial nations in decision-making and is sceptical of hegemony, unilateral rules and memory of international relations. It also recognises the fluidity and hybridity of culture and identity.

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Oxford University Press, Online Resource Centre, Chapter 12.

Chapter 12

Postcolonialism