International Relations

C14(b) - Legacy of Colonialism

Date: Jun 3 | Time: 03:30pm to 05:00pm | Location: FSS 5023

Chair/Président/Présidente : Shaun Narine (St. Thomas University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Shaun Narine (St. Thomas University)

Are There Lessons from North American Settler State Formation for Contemporary Conflict Resolution?: Ian Spears (University of Guelph)
Abstract: This paper is part of a larger project that seeks to explain higher levels of civil war and violence in Africa and the Middle East relative to Europe and North America. These contrasting levels of regional violence are understood as being the product of three types of state formation: 1) nation-states (Europe); 2) settler states (North America); and (3) colonial states (Africa and the Middle East). The principal argument of the project is that state-builders in first two categories had greater liberty to define their own frontiers and, within those borders, to engage in assimilation and exclusion of inhabitants and citizens. These practices were violent and yet produced more internally coherent and ultimately less conflict-prone states. The project does not argue United States and Canada represent development models can or should be emulated but seeks instead to explain why states in Africa and the Middle East are more conflict prone than their Western counterparts. In this paper, I demonstrate how the process of territorial expansion of the United States was careful and deliberate though often violent and indifferent to the fate of its victims.

Precarity, Violence and Resistance in the Global South: Monika Thakur (Algoma University)
Abstract: Precarity can take the form of marginalized livelihoods, structural inequalities, inability to meet basic needs, injury and forced migration. Precarity is normalized, often as “invisible” forms of harm and violence embedded in everyday life. This paper aims to understand the everyday, lived experiences of precarity and violence faced by individuals and communities in the Global South, using storytelling and personal narratives. In particular, it is imperative to understand how individuals and communities articulate their own situations, circumstances and contexts, and ways they engage in everyday forms of resistance and resurgence against these forms of violences. The paper will draw on case studies from the Global South, including Jordan, Nepal and Tanzania.