Week 6

• Imperialism, Colonialism, Neo-colonialism,

Cold War, New Cold War, Geopolitics, and
Geo-Economics
 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 military power) but also soft power
(cultural and diplomatic power).
• The word imperialism originated from the Latin word
imperium, which means supreme power, “sovereignty” or
simply “rule”.
• The Age of Imperialism is typifies by the colonization of the
Americas between the 15th and 19th centuries, as well as the
expansion of the United States, Japan, and the European
powers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
 Colonialism
• Imperialism and colonialism have been used in order to describe one’s perceived superiority,
domination and influence upon a person or group of people.
• Edward Said distinguishes between imperialism and colonialism by stating: “imperialism involved
the practice, the theory and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan center ruling a distant
territory while colonialism refers to the implanting of settlements on a distant territory.”
• Imperialism and colonialism both dictate the political and economic advantage over a land and the
indigenous populations they control
• Although imperialism and colonialism focus on the suppression of another, if colonialism refers to
the process of a country taking physical control of another, imperialism refers to the political and
monetary dominance, either formally or informally.
• Colonialism is the physical practice of global expansion, while imperialism is the idea that drives
this practice.
• In a basic cause-and-effect relationship, imperialism can be thought of as the cause and colonialism
as the effect.
• Colonialism involves the relocation of people to a new territory as permanent settlers. Once
established, the settlers maintain their loyalty and allegiance to their mother country while
working to harness the new territory’s resources for the economic benefit of that country. In
contrast, imperialism is the imposition of political and economic control over a conquered nation
or nations through the use of military force and violence.
• E.g. the British colonization of America during the 16 th and 17th centuries evolved into imperialism
when King George III stationed British troops in the colonies to enforce ever more restrictive
economic and political regulations imposed on the colonists.
• Colonialism is seen to be the architect deciding how to start dominating
areas and then imperialism can be seen as creating the idea behind
conquest cooperating with colonialism. Colonialism is when the imperial
nation begins a conquest over an area and then eventually is able to rule
over the areas the previous nation had controlled. Colonialism's core
meaning is the exploitation of the valuable assets and supplies of the
nation that was conquered and the conquering nation then gaining the
benefits from the spoils of the war. The meaning of imperialism is to
create an empire, by conquering the other state's lands and therefore
increasing its own dominance. Colonialism is the builder and preserver of
the colonial possessions in an area by a population coming from a foreign
region , Colonialism can completely change the existing social structure,
physical structure, and economics of an area; it is not unusual that the
characteristics of the conquering peoples are inherited by the conquered
indigenous populations. Few colonies remain remote from their mother
country. Thus, most will eventually establish a separate nationality or
remain under complete control of their mother colony.
• Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin suggested that “imperialism was the highest
form of capitalism, claiming that imperialism developed after colonialism.
 Neo-colonialism
• Neocolonialism as a term was coined by the French philosopher Jean-Paul Satre in 1956; however, it was
first used by Kawame Nkrumah in the context of African countries undergoing decolonization in the
1960s.
• Kawame Nkrumah, former president of Ghana, coined the term, which appeared in the 1963 preamble
of the Organization of Afican Unity Charter, and was the title of his 1965 book Neocolonialism, the Last
Stage of Imperialism (1965).
• In 1955, the usage of the “French Africa” term, by President Felix Houphouet-Boigny of Ivory Coast,
denoted positive social, cultural and economic Franco-African relations
• Noam Chomsky, a prominent critique of “American imperialism” believes that the basic principle of the
foreign policy of the United States is the establishment of “open societies” that are economically and
politically controlled by the United States and where U.S based business can prosper.
• It is the “continuation or re-imposition of imperialist rule by a state (usually, a former colonial power)
over another nominally independent state (usually, a former colony). This new form of colonialism
usually takes the form of economic imperialism, globalization, cultural imperialism and colonial aid to
influence or control a developing country instead of the previous colonial methods of direct military
control or indirect political control (hegemony).”
• Neocolonialism differs from standard globalization and development aid in that it typically results in a
relationship of dependence, subservience, or financial obligation towards the neocolonialist nation. This
may result in an undue degree of political control or spiraling debt obligations, functionally imitating the
relationship of traditional colonialism.
 Cold War

• It 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 period is generally considered to span from the announcement of Truman Doctrine
on 12 March 1947 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991.
• The term cold war is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between
the two superpowers, but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy
wars; therefore, the conflict was based around the ideological and geopolitical struggle
for global influence.
• Besides the nuclear arsenal development and conventional military deployment, the
struggle for dominance was expressed via indirect means such as psychological
warfare, propaganda campaigns, espionage, far-reaching embargos, rivalry at sport
events, and technological competitions such as the Space Race
• The Western Bloc was led by the United States as well as a number of other First World
nations that were generally liberal democratic, whereas, Eastern Bloc was led by the
Soviet Union and its Communist Party, which had influence across the Second World.
 New Cold War

• The Second Cold War or New Cold War are terms that refer
to heightened political, social, ideological, informational
and military tensions in the 21st century, between U.S and
China. It is also used to describe tensions between U.S and
Russia, primary successor state of the former Soviet Union,
which was one of the major parties of the original Cold
War.
– Rise of China
– South China Sea Dispute
– Resurgence of Russia
– Ideological Issues
 Geopolitics

• It is the study of the effects of Earth’s geography (human and physical) on

politics and international relations.
• While geopolitics usually refers to countries and relations between them,
it may also focus on two other kinds of states: de fact independent states
with limited international recognition and relations between sub-national
geopolitical entities, such as the federated states that make up a
federation, confederation or quasi-federation.
• It focuses on political power linked to geographical space. In particular,
territorial waters and land territory in correlation with diplomatic history.
At the level of international relations, geopolitics is a method of studying
foreign policy to understand, explain, and predict international political
behavior through geographical variables. These include area studies,
climate, topography, demography, natural resources and applied science
of the region being evaluated.
 Geo-Economics

• Geo-economics is a term popularly used in international relations to refer to

“the study of the spatial, temporal and political aspects of economies and
resources.”
• It is the application of power politics by economic means. Therefore, it is a
contest waged via global trade and investment rather than on a traditional
battlefield. Countries have been increasingly participating n this forum of
active economic intervention by applying sanctions, export controls,
subsidies, while developing investment-screening mechanisms and data-
localization measures.
• Geo-economics is understood as the use of economic tools to advance
geopolitical objectives.
• Geo-economics entered the lexicon n 1990 with an article by Edward
Luttwak, which argued that following the Cold War, the importance of
military power was giving way to geo-economic power- usage of economic
tools to project power