Killing the Third World: civilisational security as US grand strategy

Abstract

This article disputes explanations of American expansionism that are based on the requirements of national security or more abstract theories such as the balance of power. In contradistinction to the imperatives of defence and survival, the article shows how civilisational factors weighed heavily on the emergence of US grand strategy at the turn of the nineteenth century. In particular assumptions about the peoples of the Third World being lesser played an important role in the conception and legitimation of imperial expansion. During this period, the US Navy went through a dramatic build-up. The article shows the ways in which the worldviews of many of the key players (such as Alfred Mahan and Theodore Roosevelt) contributed to the militarisation of global racism, a development that led to widespread killing in the Philippines and elsewhere.     

Building Technological Capability Through Importing Technology: The Case of Indonesian Manufacturing Industry

This research investigates the critical elements affecting the ability of firms in developing countries to cultivate their technological capability through imported technology. The information obtained from forty-five technology recipient Indonesian manufacturing firms indicate that the cultivation of technological capability is affected by several factors such as a firm's technological absorption capacity in terms of R&D activities and availability of technical personnel; transfer channels; government's involvement; and a firm's learning culture. Also, the acquisition of mature technology just to boost production capacity or improve product quality contributes very little to the development of technological capability.     

From sexation to sexualization: dispersed submission in the racialized global sex industry

This article introduces two new concepts—dispersed submission (DS) and sexation—in an interrogation of the general structures and nuanced practices of the global sex industry. There is considerable stress on the ways in which practices of domination during colonialism set up a form of racio-gendered ‘path dependence’ now imbricated in the current neoliberal global political economy. The arguments emerge from both material practices and careful consideration of the extant literature on the subject. One of the most significant aspects of the article is the effort to go beyond the already rich literature on the trafficking–sex-worker binary debate. Methodologically, the article employs a spacio-temporal model much informed by the work of Frantz Fanon and Fernand Braudel of the French Annales.     

Violence and ordering of the Third World: an introduction

Abstract

The decisive role violence has played in the ordering of the Third World cannot be ignored or consigned to the past. Accordingly, we argue for a more systematic and determined attention to the connections between the devastation unleashed by colonialism, imperialism, and other forms of large-scale violence in the post-independence periods. In contradistinction to situating violence in and against the Third World as a backdrop of incomplete modernization, we recognize that its proper location is in the larger dynamics of racialized and colonial international relations. The articles in this volume address these dynamics of violence.     

Subsidiarity, Regional Governance, and Caribbean Security

The reconfiguration of the global security order since the late 1980s has had a heavy impact on regional security in the Caribbean. Having lost strategic importance, the Caribbean states have been attempting to restructure their relationship with the United States. These small states are interested in building a regional security regime that is inclusive, transparent, and accountable. This analysis shows how the principle of subsidiarity may be employed to achieve that end.