Arenas of imperialism

The second debate of the day was dedicated to the reflection on old and new arenas of imperialism. The first speaker of the panel caired by Łukasz Fyderek was Jeanette Bougrab who began her speech with reminding her work in the French government. As a child of migrants from Algeria she felt a huge responsibility when dealing with the Arab Spring. What’s mores she found herslef in a really difficult situation when at first she had to persuade the governemt to suport the protesters and then, once Muslim fundamentalists got to power, she decided to oppose any cooperation with them.

Then Emel Akçali highlighted that nowadays imperialism found itself new spheres. These are mainly: technology, economy and culture. It resulted from the rise of neoliberalism. Other aspect is the governmentality. According to Emel Akçali it’s a new form of imperialism that lets to govern from distance by imposing certain giuding rules and regulations. For instance many countries in Africa suffer from big income gaps that are an effect of penetration of neoliberal values in the region. From this perspective radical islam might be seen as one of the resistance strategies offering alternative to the supremacy of Western, imposed and exported neoliberal governmentality.

In the opinion of Felix Kaputu, one of the new arenas of imperialism is a postimperial nostalgy. Many countries are looking for their lost or imagined hegemony. This is both the case for the European colonial aspirations and the African powers. According to Felix Kaputu, the Western states shouldn’t intervene in the developlment of political processes in Africa. Instead, they could help the eduaction and support cultural institutions.

To Patrycja Sasnal imperialism isn’t a dominant factor in the Middle East but one of the many trends that serves as a political inspiration. "Imperialism from the past remained as an image” and plays role in politics based on ressentiment. One example of that long duree of imperialism is the legacy of Napoleon’s invasion in Egypt which is still a part of the political memory of the region. Patrycja Sasnal also underlined not so black or white legacy of imperial era in the Middle East. "Even the state as such is an exported construct of the West” that has been adapted to the local conditions. Oher thing is the "elites’ betrayal”. The regional elites are usually isolated from the society. They were upbrought by the West and have difficulties to perceive and understand the local concerns. Finally, she also pointd out so called "wannabe Goliaths” i.e. the anti-Western nations who’re struggling to reinvent their own imperial position in the region. Reffering to Paweł Kowal’s speech she named the current politics of Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Saudia Arabia and Isreal as paleoimperialist.