File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2002/postcolonial.0204, message 167


From: "Liam Connell" <l.connell-AT-herts.ac.uk>
Subject: the new imperialism
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 20:28:34 +0100


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The text of a proposed letter to the Observer for which I am currently gathering signatures.  It a is rather imperfect response which is necessarily brief because of the nature of letters columns.  I do hope to write a more considered response in the long term though.

With Britain supporting an escalation of hostilities against Iraq it is distressing to see Robert Cooper's description of modern statehood presented without comment by your paper. Mr Cooper's 'new imperialism' neatly resembles old-fashioned imperialism in situating Europe as the moral vanguard of history.  More troubling is his assumption that 'chaos' is the product of the effective failure of the state in his pre-modern world rather than of the massive economic inequalities at the international level. Though Mr Cooper sees them as part of his moral imperialism, these inequalities are often exacerbated by institutions such as the World Bank, IMF and WTO, which believe in the imperfectability of the public sector and the endless virtues of private capital. Likewise, Mr Cooper's belief in the lofty morals of multilateral Europe conspicuously ignores the way that the EU consistently intervenes in other states in ways which appear to support its own free market aspirations and more traditional 'raison d'etat'. Whether further attacks on Iraq remove Saddam Hussein or not, they are guaranteed to be catastrophic for the Iraqi people whose life-expectancy has tumbled under a regime of international sanctions and continual bombing by the West. This policy is designed precisely to perpetuate the failure of the Iraqi state and, despite human rights abuses by Hussein's government, it is difficult to see how this has benefited ordinary Iraqis. As his praise for EU intervention in the Balkans illustrates, it is precisely this policy which Mr Cooper is advocating as a model of 'Postmodern imperialism.' This should be exposed for what it is - the championing of Europe and American private interests - and not heralded as the 'moral consciousness' of a world 'grown honest'.


________________

Dr Liam Connell
Literature Group,
Department of Humanities,
University of Hertfordshire,
Watford Campus,
Wall Hall, Aldenham,
Watford.  WD2   8AT
UK

HTML VERSION:

The text of a proposed letter to the Observer for which I am currently gathering signatures.  It a is rather imperfect response which is necessarily brief because of the nature of letters columns.  I do hope to write a more considered response in the long term though.
 
With Britain supporting an escalation of hostilities against Iraq it is distressing to see Robert Cooper's description of modern statehood presented without comment by your paper. Mr Cooper's 'new imperialism' neatly resembles old-fashioned imperialism in situating Europe as the moral vanguard of history.  More troubling is his assumption that 'chaos' is the product of the effective failure of the state in his pre-modern world rather than of the massive economic inequalities at the international level. Though Mr Cooper sees them as part of his moral imperialism, these inequalities are often exacerbated by institutions such as the World Bank, IMF and WTO, which believe in the imperfectability of the public sector and the endless virtues of private capital. Likewise, Mr Cooper’s belief in the lofty morals of multilateral Europe conspicuously ignores the way that the EU consistently intervenes in other states in ways which appear to support its own free market aspirations and more traditional ‘raison d’etat’. Whether further attacks on Iraq remove Saddam Hussein or not, they are guaranteed to be catastrophic for the Iraqi people whose life-expectancy has tumbled under a regime of international sanctions and continual bombing by the West. This policy is designed precisely to perpetuate the failure of the Iraqi state and, despite human rights abuses by Hussein’s government, it is difficult to see how this has benefited ordinary Iraqis. As his praise for EU intervention in the Balkans illustrates, it is precisely this policy which Mr Cooper is advocating as a model of ‘Postmodern imperialism.’ This should be exposed for what it is – the championing of Europe and American private interests – and not heralded as the ‘moral consciousness’ of a world ‘grown honest’.
 
 
________________
 
Dr Liam Connell
Literature Group,
Department of Humanities,
University of Hertfordshire,
Watford Campus,
Wall Hall, Aldenham,
Watford.  WD2   8AT
UK
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