Resistance to Empire and Militarization - Reclaiming the Sacred - Jude Lal Fernando

Resistance to Empire and Militarization - Reclaiming the Sacred - Jude Lal Fernando

14. Colonialism Still Matters: Militarization and Imperial Grand Strategy in the Era of US vs China

Resistance to Empire and Militarization - Reclaiming the Sacred - Jude Lal Fernando

Andy Higginbottom [+-]
Kingston University
Andy Higginbottom is associate professor in Kingston University and a Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy in the UK. He is an international solidarity campaigner in support of social movements in Colombia, South Africa, and Tamil Eelam. He teaches modules on international political economy, slavery and emancipation, and crimes of the powerful.

Description

Imperialist “global policing” is a reality. The US pivot to Asia and its military penetration of Africa through Africom adding to its well-established programme of intervention in Latin America, has been redirected in recent years to isolating and ultimately eliminating “the pink tide”. Britain has launched the first of two mega aircraft carriers, primarily for the international projection of aerial strike power, that are likely to be used in areas where there is no equivalent land base, such as the South China Sea or the South Atlantic. Good-detailed analysis of the resurgence of US militarism post-9/11 indicates the mushrooming of private security from the Iraq occupation, impunity for rendition and torture, forward operating bases, enhanced surveillance capacities, and drone warfare. A synthesis is needed for these different elements. However, a recent typology of militarism identified nation state militarism and neoliberal militarism but had not categorized neo-colonial or imperialistic militarism. This chapter will build on Hippler’s (2017) history of aerial bombing to argue that the current strategies of the US, UK, and France demonstrate a resurgent imperialism, with formerly colonized people addressed in a fundamentally different way as legitimate targets in total war strategies.

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Citation

Higginbottom, Andy. 14. Colonialism Still Matters: Militarization and Imperial Grand Strategy in the Era of US vs China. Resistance to Empire and Militarization - Reclaiming the Sacred. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 251-269 Apr 2020. ISBN 9781800500204. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=40201. Date accessed: 10 Oct 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.40201. Apr 2020

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