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11. Punjab Public Library: An Amalgamation of Mughal and Colonial Architecture and its Impact on the Politics of the Subcontinent

Author:
Nomana Zaryab and Rana Eijaz Ahmad
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
Punjab Public Library stands as a hallmark of combination of two buildings- one a bāradari built in the Mughal period with all the architectural details and qualities of that period, second a later constructed building during the British Rāj, and subsequently added extensions after partition to meet the demand of grander space. The intention of this research paper is to have a closer vision at the use of European style of architecture in addition to existing historical Islamic period’s building. The research will explore the key elements that permit the Mughal and Colonial style of architecture to work side by side for the same purpose, respecting and promoting each other’s architectural eminence. Old and new style of architecture at one place provides a timeline of certain society and these emblematic details represent the change and growth of our culture.
Topic:
Politics, History, Colonialism, Material Culture, and Architecture
Political Geography:
Pakistan, United Kingdom, South Asia, and Punjab

12. The Secret Testimony of the Peel Commission (Part 1): Underbelly of Empire

Author:
Laila Parsons
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
The Peel Commission (1936–37) was the first British commission of inquiry to recommend the partition of Palestine into two states. The commissioners made their recommendation after listening to several weeks of testimony, delivered in both public and secret sessions. The transcripts of the public testimony were published soon afterward, but the secret testimony transcripts were only released by the United Kingdom’s National Archives in March 2017. Divided into two parts, this article closely examines the secret testimony. Part I discusses how the secret testimony deepens our understanding of key themes in Mandate history, including: the structural exclusion of the Palestinians from the Mandate state, the place of development projects in that structural exclusion, the different roles played by British anti-Semitism and anti-Arab racism, and the importance of the procedural aspects of committee work for understanding the mechanics of British governance. Part II extends this analysis by focusing on what the secret testimony reveals about how the Peel Commission came to recommend partition.
Topic:
Nationalism, Developments, Zionism, Colonialism, Empire, and Anti-Semitism
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, Israel, and Palestine

13. European Turkey and European Morocco: Two Identity Construction cases in the path to the EEC membership

Author:
Volkan Ipek and Selin Turkes-Kilic
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Turkish Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Institution:
Turkish Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Abstract:
This article analyzes Morocco’s and Turkey’s full membership application processes to the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1987 from an identity perspective. The construction of both Morocco’s and Turkey’s European-ness are explored alongside aspects of postcolonial and modernization theories rooted in the poststructuralist approach by taking official discourses of the political leaders in the two states at the time of application into account. In the conventional narratives of the establishment of their modern states, Morocco perceived Europe as its other due to the history of European colonialism, whereas Turkey perceived Europe as its other considering it a threat to its national unity prior to the establishment of the Republic in 1923. In spite of this, two states tried to add European-ness into their national identities through their application to the EEC in 1987. In this way, Morocco and Turkey aimed at demonstrating not why European but how much European they were. In Morocco’s case, an obligation for demonstrating one’s European- ness is explained through the lens of postcolonial theory, and in Turkey’s case, the modernization paradigm is applied. Departing from these theoretical standpoints, the study focuses on official European-ness discourses by Moroccan and Turkish leaders, which had taken place as dynamic processes. In this respect, the article unravels how Europe and European-ness that was once regarded as the other by Turkey and Morocco were tried to be included into Moroccan and Turkish national identities on the path to become a full member to the EEC.
Topic:
Post Colonialism, Regional Cooperation, Colonialism, Modernization, Economic Cooperation, and European Economic Community
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Turkey, Asia, and Morocco

14. The Ambiguity Towards Portugal’s African Colonies (1953-1985): Defining Aspects of Brazil’s African Policy

Author:
Kamilla Raquel Rizzi and Patrick Bueno
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
The Portuguese colonization, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, was the first bond established between Brazil and the African continent, and it was especially deepened by the slave trade. With the Brazilian independence in 1822, as well as with the end of the slave trade across the Atlantic, between 1845 and 1850, there was a gradual movement away from said continent, once the imperial foreign policy axis was now directed towards the River Plate, to the South, as well as to England, Western Europe and the North of the global system. In the 20th century, along with the two World Wars, the creation of the United Nations, and the Cold War, Brazil’s international projection was drawn according to the opportunities presented in this new world system. The aim of the present paper is thus to analyze the ambiguity between Brazilian political discourse and foreign practice with regard to the Portuguese colonies. The research problem consists in identifying which aspects have exerted an influence on the definition of Brazil’s African policy. As a research question, it is assumed that Brazil, since the Independent Foreign Policy (IFP), with its discourse of non-alignment with the powers of the world system, the identification with the Third Worldist theses, and based on the politics of the “3Ds” (development, decolonization and disarmament), supported the anti-colonial principle and was an advocate for the self-determination of peoples. However, an ambiguity was evident by the official political alignment with Portugal, due to the 1953 Treaty of Friendship and Consultation.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, History, and Colonialism
Political Geography:
Africa, Brazil, and Portugal

15. Uses, Reuses and Abuses: Crossing “Borders” and “Luso-Africanities” in the Historiographies of Angola, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau for the 15th, 16th and 17th Centuries

Author:
Alec Ichiro Ito
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
Contrary to a historiographical study, this article is an essayistic reflection on some notions and understandings that run through African studies about the Portuguese expansion in West and Central West Africa. Therefore, we will not dwell on the conditions of production, ideological affiliations or trends that competed for the elaboration of historical narratives, but on the “itinerant sharing” of ideas, the circularity of conceptual uses and reuses and the “general solutions” provided for some canonical problems. In this sense, we are influenced by a reflection proposal presented by Leila M. G. Leite Hernandez (2014). Our objects of analysis are the most influential works that address the stories of Angola, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau for the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. What are the shares and circularities that mesh the notions of border and Luso-Africanity? How are these ideas associated with meetings and contact studies? Is the notion of boundary necessary for the contemporary epistemic paradigm? Are there risks in neglecting it? These are some of the problems that will be analysed through the text.
Topic:
History, Colonialism, Borders, and Geography
Political Geography:
Africa, Portugal, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Cabo Verde

16. Reconciliation beyond the Box: The UN Declaration and Plurinational Federalism in Canada

Author:
Sarah Morales and Joshua Nicholas
Publication Date:
09-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has publicly shared a vision of a plurinational state brought about through truth and reconciliation. He has expressed hope that Canadians are ready to rectify past wrongs and undo the legacy of colonialism by using the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN Declaration) as “a way forward” to achieve self-determination, dignity and respect for Indigenous peoples. Many have questioned the government’s commitment to reconciliation built upon nation-to-nation and government-to-government relationships. Governmental support of major development projects such as the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion, against strong opposition from some Indigenous voices, has created skepticism. Many Indigenous leaders have expressed concerns about how changes to a number of laws currently making their way through Parliament will impact Indigenous people, and whether their concerns are being fully heard by government. With respect to the government’s rights recognition and implementation framework, some Indigenous communities argue that the focus should be on the affirmation rather than the mere recognition of rights that are already enshrined in the UN Declaration. This paper looks at the history of Indigenous treaty making in Canada, the history of the courts’ statements regarding Crown sovereignty, underlying title and legislative power, and how the UN Declaration might lead Canada and Indigenous peoples toward genuine nation-to-nation relationships.
Topic:
Energy Policy, United Nations, Colonialism, and Indigenous
Political Geography:
Canada and North America

17. The Palestinian Diaspora and the State-Building Process

Author:
Taher labadi
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
Displacement, dispersal, denial of nationhood, and global power shifts define the existence of the Palestinian diaspora, hindering their ability to connect to each other and to their homeland. This paper outlines diaspora-homeland relationships that, it argues, are shaped by both settler-colonial policies and globalization. “Diasporization” also impacts power dynamics among Palestinians, reflected in the shifting centre of gravity of Palestinian politics toward the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the growing marginalization of the Palestinian diaspora – especially those residing in neighbouring Arab countries. This paper also addresses the emergence of Palestinian diaspora elites who have been involved in inward-bound dynamics within the state-building process. Of particular note are increasing attempts to mobilize Palestinian “expatriates,” intending to strengthen their involvement in both economic development and state-building processes.
Topic:
Globalization, Diaspora, Colonialism, State Building, and Economic Development
Political Geography:
Africa, Middle East, Israel, and Palestine

18. Dual Colonialism and the Formation of the National State: The South African Case

Author:
Maximilian Dante Barone Bullerjahn
Publication Date:
06-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
South Africa is certainly one of the few countries that has assimilated in such a significant way two distinct colonization processes, at different times. The trading post of the Dutch imperial fleet on the Cape soon became a space for the occupation of European settlers, who, searching for a homeland, found in the vast lands around the Cape the space for the development of a new civilization. Of a Protestant majority, these new European settlers made of the land their acquired triumph. Between the revolutionary turmoil in France and the Napoleonic imperial appetite, the arrival of the English to the Cape region substantially transformed the socio-political relations in the region. The subsequent exodus of the Boers2 enabled a cult for their selfassertion, and the South African space was filled by successive battles over the territory between the Boers, the English, and native peoples. At the end of the nineteenth century, the discovery of mineral riches on an unprecedented scale marked the transition from an economy still lagging behind to one with a modernizing foundation, with the development of a sophisticated financial system initially directed at the primary-exporting matrix, which would later on become the anchor for the incipient process of South African industrialization. The formation of the two Boer republics, beyond Afrikaner3 nationalism, sought to contain the rapid advance of English imperialism in the midst of the discovery of the largest deposits of precious minerals on the continent. After two traumatic wars, a political arrangement emerged: the South African Union (1910), an understanding between English and Boer elites, later on leading up to the federalization of the territories occupied by the Boer republics and the English coastal colonies.
Topic:
Nationalism, State Formation, and Colonialism
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

19. DECOLONIZATION IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM: INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND LEGAL PLURALISM, A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN BOLIVIA, COLOMBIA, AND ECUADOR

Author:
Sergio Miranda Hayes
Publication Date:
05-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
In the academic world, scientific literature comes mainly from the western part of the globe. Ramón Grossfoguel believes that knowledge is determined by power relations in the "post-colonial" era (Grossfoguel, 2002: 16). This means that Western powers dominate the academic world. In constitutional law, this is not the exception. However, while we can accept that it is true that many constitutional provisions, doctrine, jurisprudence and theories of Western constitutional law have influenced Latin American countries, most of these countries have also developed their own constitutional systems that have specific and new features, whose unique identity differentiates them from other systems in the world. In this paper, I will try to study the special features that Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia have in the recognition of indigenous rights and legal pluralism, whose discursive axis entails a “decolonizing” spirit which is the retrieval of their own institutions against the trends of hegemonic governance of the western culture as I will explain later. Latin America has faced numerous problems concerning social differentiation. In the opinion of one of the most cited authors in Latin American constitutional law, Raquel Yrigoyen, the disadvantaged were left behind from the social, economic and political issues through legal measures created by people of a favored minority, in order to maintain privileges (Yrigoyen, 2011: 139). In the case of Latin America, many of the disadvantaged match to be those survivors of the brutal Spanish conquest; the native Indians. I have chosen these three countries since they have a significant indigenous population; more than 36.6 million indigenous people in the region. In Bolivia, the number rises to 4,115,222 natives, in Ecuador 1018176,and in Colombia 1392623. (World Bank, 2014: 24-25) The Constitutions of Colombia (1991), Ecuador (2008) and Bolivia (2009) reflect the new “decolonizing” ideology; Colombia through its jurisprudence, on the one hand, and Bolivia and Ecuador, proclaiming themselves "Plurinational”countries on the other. All made great strides in recognizing indigenous rights and, consequently, in gaining their social inclusion. (Gargarella, 2014: 175) Constitutional systems are a product of history and the struggle of peoples. In these cases, the effort to include indigenous peoples in the economic, political and social spheres resulted in these new constitutional models which can be understood through a comparative study.By understanding this, advantages and disadvantages of each country to improve social inclusion of indigenous peoples in all the mentioned spheres can be found. In the first title, I will talk about the meaning of legal pluralism. In the second, I will discussthe new models of statewhich are conditioned by legal pluralism and indigenous rights. In the third, I will address indigenous autonomies and jurisdictions that are the subject of our study. And in the remaining two titles, I will discuss the most distinctive features, and rights arising from the recognition of this unique legal pluralism. All this with the purpose of exposing the new constitutional spirit of "decolonization" of these countries.
Topic:
Human Rights, Post Colonialism, Legal Theory, Colonialism, Decolonization, and Economic Inequality
Political Geography:
United States, Colombia, South America, Latin America, North America, Ecuador, and Bolivia

20. Lack of Dissuasive Policy: the Case of Ifni-Sahara War / La ausencia de política disuasoria: el caso de la guerra de Ifni-Sáhara

Author:
Juan Pastrana Piñero
Publication Date:
12-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal on International Security Studies (RESI)
Institution:
International Security Studies Group (GESI) at the University of Granada
Abstract:
The lack of a dissuasive policy was one of the key factors that explains the outbreak of the last Spanish colonial war. This article analyses the contradictory policy of general Franco’s regime about its territories of the Africa Occidental Española. Especially, it deals with the absence of a credible dissuasive policy in contrast to the increasing menacing presence of the so-called Army of Liberation of the Sahara.
Topic:
War, History, Colonialism, and Deterrence
Political Geography:
France, North Africa, Morocco, and Sahara