Top 5 books: Empire and race in International Relations
Mariana Vieira
On the first issue of its 100th year, International Affairs published a special edition entitled ‘Race and imperialism in International Relations: theory and practice’, guest-edited by Jasmine K. Gani and Jenna Marshall. Alongside our editorial, 100 years of International Affairs, this January 2022 issue signalled the journal’s commitment to ‘ensure that International Affairs is a truly global and inclusive journal’. To mark the one-year anniversary of its publication, Book Reviews Editor Mariana Vieira selected five books reviewed in 2022 that expose the lasting legacies of empire and race in the International Relations discipline and within different subfields such as migration studies, political economy and more.
1) Capital and imperialism
Written by Utsa Patnaik and Prabhat Patnaik. Published in New York by Monthly Review Press.
Capitalism and imperialism takes readers on a journey through the last three centuries to examine the history and politics of locations central to the formation of the contemporary the global economy. Utsa Patnaik and Prabhat Patnaik valiantly unpack the role of colonialism as a stimulus for the capitalist model. Drawing on examples from the Indian subcontinent, the book explores ‘the theory, history and present’ of international finance capital, and considers the path forward with a discussion of different solutions for the future.
Read the full review here.
2) Migration studies and colonialism
Written by Lucy Mayblin and Joe Turner. Published in Cambridge by Polity.
In their book, Lucy Mayblin and Joe Turner argue that historicization is the missing ingredient to understand the impact of colonialism beyond the formal decline of empires. Migration studies and colonialism challenges myriad assumptions that underpin traditional approaches to migration, including the lasting impact of European modernity, the erasure of race and colonial expropriation and the myth of equality between states. The result is a compelling account of the constraints that have regulated human mobility and delegitimized global migration. Moreover, the authors’ thoughtful and nuanced approach to cultural decolonization will be of interest to scholars seeking to deploy a similar framework to other subfields of International Relations.
Read the full review here.
3) Capitalism as civilisation
Written by Ntina Tzouvala. Published in Cambridge by Cambridge University Press.
Capitalism as civilisation offers a systematic investigation of the origins of international law that is reminiscent of Gerrit Gong’s The ‘standard of civilization’ in international society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984). Nina Tzouvala charts the influence of imperial politics, from the nineteenth century to the formation of the League of Nations, and brings her analysis to the more recent ‘war on terror’. This exquisite critical history highlights how ideas of civilization, race, gender, biology and capitalism have contributed to an ‘unequal distribution of rights and duties under international law’. Reviewed jointly with Anne Orford’s International law and the politics of history, this book really packs a punch.
Read the full review here.
4) Imperialism & development
Written by Nicholas Westcott. Published in Woodbridge by Boydell & Brewer.
The end of the Second World War brought peace to Europe and a dangerous modicum of free time to the British government. Without the threat of a German invasion, Clement Atlee and his cabinet set their eyes on colonial development in British east Africa. Imperialism & development evaluates the disastrous groundnut scheme, which remains ‘unmatched in its ambition, cost, failure and indeed, hubris’. Nicholas Westcott expertly leverages archival sources in an engaging narrative of the megaproject’s political origins, its rushed execution and eventual demise. Throughout, the author pays attention to the context, legacy and lessons of the groundnut scheme from which almost no groundnuts were exported.
Read the full review here.
5) White freedom
Written by Tyler Stovall. Published in Princeton by Princeton University Press.
In White freedom, the late Tyler Stovall delves into the literature on whiteness studies to demonstrate how ideas of freedom in the modern world have been racialized. Focusing on the history of liberal western democracies, the book offers an essential and timely rethink of what it means to be free in the western world, with implications for other ideas including human rights. From economics, to migration, international law, development and democracy, the titles above show that imperialism and racism cast longer shadows than some might have thought. In this context, Stovall’s call to find ‘a way to free our societies from the need for whiteness’ is ever more prescient.
Read the full review here.
Mariana Vieira is the Book Reviews Editor of International Affairs.
Read the January 2022 special issue titled ‘Race and imperialism in International Relations: Theory and Practice’ edited by Jasmine Gani and Jenna Marshall here.
Read the review section in our January 2023 issue in full here.
Find more suggestions from the IA Bookshelf series here.
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