Neocolonialism

Neocolonialism can be defined as the control of lessdeveloped countries by developed countries through an indirect means. The term was first used after World War II to refer to the continuing dependence of former colonies on foreign countries. Its meaning soon broadened to apply, more generally, to places where the power of developed countries was used to produce a colonial-like exploitation, for instance, in Latin America, where direct foreign rule had ended in the early nineteenth century. The term is now widely used to refer to a system of global governance in which transnational corporations and global and multilateral institutions combine to perpetuate colonial forms of exploitation of developing countries. Neocolonial governance has been broadly theorized as a further development of capitalism that enables capitalist powers (both nations and corporations) to dominate subject nations through the operations of international capitalism, rather than by means of direct rule.

The term neocolonialism was originally applied to European policies that were seen as schemes to maintain control of African and other dependencies. The event that marked the beginning of this usage was the European Summit in Paris in 1957, where six European heads of government agreed to include their overseas territories within the European Common Market under trade arrangements that were seen by some national leaders and groups as representing a new form of economic domination over French-occupied Africa and the colonial territories of Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Neocolonialism came to be seen, more generally, as involving a coordinated effort by former colonial powers and other developed countries to block growth in developing countries and retain them as sources of cheap raw materials and cheap labor. This effort was seen as closely associated with the Cold War and, in particular, with the U.S. policy known as the Truman Doctrine. Under this policy, the U.S. government offered large amounts of money to any government prepared to accept U.S. protection from communism. This enabled the United States to extend its sphere of influence and, in some cases, to place foreign governments under its control. The United States and other developed countries have also ensured the subordination of developing countries by interfering in conflicts and helping in other ways to install regimes that are willing to act for the benefit of foreign companies and against their own country's interests.

However, neocolonial governance is seen as generally operating through indirect forms of control and, in particular, by means of the economic, financial, and trade policies of transnational corporations and global and multilateral institutions. It operates through the investments of multinational corporations that, while enriching a few in underdeveloped countries, keep those countries as a whole in a situation of dependency and cultivates them as reservoirs of cheap labor and raw materials. It also operates through international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which make loans (as well as other forms of economic aid) conditional on the recipient nations taking steps favorable to the financial cartels represented by these institutions, but detrimental to their own economies. Thus, while many people see these corporations and institutions as part of an essentially new global order and a new form of global governance, the notion of neocolonialism directs our attention to what, in this system and constellation of power, represents continuity between the present and recent past.

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