Editing Neocolonialism (section)

== Neocolonial economic dominance ==
[[File:Hands off Timorese Oil - Brisbane May Day 2017 parade.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|People in Brisbane protesting [[Australia–East Timor relations|Australia's claim on East Timorese oil]], in May 2017]]

In 1961, regarding the economic mechanism of neocolonial control, in the speech ''Cuba: Historical Exception or Vanguard in the Anti-colonial Struggle?'', Argentine revolutionary [[Che Guevara]] said:

{{Blockquote|We, politely referred to as "underdeveloped", in truth, are [[European colonialism|colonial]], semi-colonial or dependent countries. We are countries whose economies have been distorted by imperialism, which has abnormally developed those branches of industry or agriculture needed to complement its complex economy. "Underdevelopment", or distorted development, brings a dangerous specialisation in raw materials, inherent in which is the threat of hunger for all our peoples. We, the "underdeveloped", are also those with the single crop, the single product, the single market. A single product whose uncertain sale depends on a single market imposing and fixing conditions. That is the great formula for imperialist economic domination.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Cuba: Historical exception or vanguard in the anticolonial struggle? |first=Che |last=Guevara |author-link=Che Guevara |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1961/04/09.htm |date=April 9, 1961 |access-date=August 27, 2021 |via=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]}}</ref>}}

=== Dependency theory ===
{{Main|Dependency theory}}
[[Dependency theory]] is the theoretical description of economic neocolonialism. It proposes that the global economic system comprises wealthy countries at the centre, and poor countries at the periphery. Economic neocolonialism extracts the human and natural resources of a poor country to flow to the economies of the wealthy countries. It claims that the poverty of the peripheral countries is the result of how they are integrated in the global economic system. Dependency theory derives from the [[Marxism|Marxist]] analysis of economic inequalities within the world's system of economies, thus, under-development of the periphery is a direct result of development in the centre. It includes the concept of the late 19th century [[semi-colony]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=Ernest |last=Mandel |author-link=Ernest Mandel |title=Semicolonial Countries and Semi-Industrialised Dependent Countries |journal=New International |location=New York |number=5 |pages=149–175}}</ref> It contrasts the Marxist perspective of the theory of colonial dependency with capitalist economics. The latter proposes that poverty is a development stage in the poor country's progress towards full integration in the global economic system. Proponents of dependency theory, such as Venezuelan historian [[Federico Brito Figueroa]], who investigated the socioeconomic bases of neocolonial dependency, influenced the thinking of the former President of Venezuela, [[Hugo Chávez]].{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

===Cold War===
{{Main|Cold War}}
During the mid-to-late 20th century, in the course of the ideological conflict between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., each country and its [[satellite state]]s accused each other of practising neocolonialism in their [[Imperialism|imperial]] and [[Hegemony|hegemonic]] pursuits.<ref name="KanetMiner1992">{{cite book |first1=Roger E. |last1=Kanet |first2=Deborah N. |last2=Miner |first3=Tamara J. |last3=Resler |title=Soviet Foreign Policy in Transition |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=U9cNYHGVzzsC|page=149}} |date=April 2, 1992|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-41365-7 |pages=149–150}}</ref><ref name="Ruether2008">{{cite book |first=Rosemary Radford |last=Ruether |title=Christianity and Social Systems: Historical Constructions and Ethical Challenges |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=OHi7FAlbe18C|page=138}} |year=2008 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |isbn=978-0-7425-4643-1 |page=138 |quote=Neo-colonialism means that European powers and the United States no longer rule dependent territories, directly through their occupying troops and imperial bureaucracy. Rather, they control the area's resources indirectly, through business corporations and the financial lending institutions they dominate&nbsp;...}}</ref><ref name="Siddiqi2008">{{cite book |first=Yumna |last=Siddiqi |title=Anxieties of Empire and the Fiction of Intrigue |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=pVSsAgAAQBAJ|page=123}} |year=2008 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-0-231-13808-6 |pages=123–124}} Provides the standard definition of "Neo-colonialism" specific to the US and European colonialism.</ref><ref name="Shannon1996">{{cite book |first=Thomas R. |last=Shannon |title=An Introduction to the World-system Perspective |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=U39evXuC41kC|page=94}} |year=1996 |publisher=[[Westview Press]] |isbn=978-0-8133-2452-4 |pages=94–95 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Defines "neo-colonialism" as a capitalist phenomenon.</ref><ref name="Blanchard1996">{{cite book |first=William H. |last=Blanchard |title=Neocolonialism American Style, 1960–2000|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=d42R23Jq6SMC|page=3}} |year=1996 |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |isbn=978-0-313-30013-4 |pages=3–12}} Defines "neo-colonialism" on page 7.</ref><ref name="Seton-Watson1977">{{cite book |first=Hugh |last=Seton-Watson |title=Nations and States: An Enquiry Into the Origins of Nations and the Politics of Nationalism |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=u5kOAAAAQAAJ|page=339}} |year=1977 |publisher=Methuen |isbn=978-0-416-76810-7 |page=339}} Provides the history of the word "neo-colonialism" as an anti-capitalist term (p. 339); also applicable to the U.S.S.R. (p. 322).</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Edward M. |last=Bennett |title=Colonialism and Neo-colonialism |pages=285–291 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy |editor1-first=Alexander |editor1-last=DeConde |editor2-first=Richard Dean |editor2-last=Burns |editor3-first=Fredrik |editor3-last=Logevall |edition=2nd |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2002 |isbn=0-684-80657-6}} Clarifies that neo-colonialism is a practice of the colonial powers, that "the Soviets practiced imperialism, not colonialism".</ref> The struggle included [[proxy war]]s, fought by client states in the decolonised countries. Cuba, the [[Warsaw Pact|Warsaw Pact bloc]], Egypt under [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]] (1956–1970) ''et al.'' accused the U.S. of sponsoring anti-democratic governments whose regimes did not represent the interests of their people and of overthrowing elected governments (African, Asian, Latin American) that did not support U.S. geopolitical interests.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

In the 1960s, under the leadership of Chairman [[Mehdi Ben Barka]], the Cuban [[Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America|Tricontinental Conference]] (Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America) recognised and supported the validity of revolutionary [[anticolonialism|anti-colonialism]] as a means for colonised peoples of the Third World to achieve self-determination, a policy which angered the U.S. and France. Moreover, Chairman Barka headed the Commission on Neocolonialism, which dealt with the work to resolve the neocolonial involvement of colonial powers in decolonised counties; and said that the U.S., as the leading capitalist country of the world, was, in practise, the principal neocolonialist political actor.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

=== Multinational corporations ===
{{Main|Multinational corporation}}
Critics of the practice of neocolonialism also argue that investment by [[multinational corporation]]s enriches few in underdeveloped countries and causes [[humanitarian]], [[Natural environment|environmental]] and [[ecological]] damage to their populations. They argue that this results in [[sustainable development|unsustainable development]] and perpetual underdevelopment. These countries remain reservoirs of cheap labor and raw materials, while restricting access to advanced production techniques to develop their own economies. In some countries, monopolization of natural resources, while initially leading to an influx of investment, is often followed by increases in unemployment, poverty and a decline in per-capita income.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0404-06.htm |title=World Bank, IMF Threw Colombia Into Tailspin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120929095554/http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0404-06.htm |archive-date=September 29, 2012 |work=[[The Baltimore Sun]] |date=April 4, 2002}}</ref>

In the West African nations of Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Mauritania, fishing was historically central to the economy. Beginning in 1979, the European Union began negotiating contracts with governments for fishing off the coast of West Africa. Unsustainable commercial over-fishing by foreign fleets played a significant role in large-scale unemployment and migration of people across the region.<ref>{{Cite news |last=LaFraniere |first=Sharon |date=January 14, 2008 |title=Europe Takes Africa's Fish, and Boatloads of Migrants Follow |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/world/africa/14fishing.html |access-date=August 27, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> This violates the [[United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea]], which recognises the importance of fishing to local communities and insists that government fishing agreements with foreign companies should target only surplus stocks.<ref>[[#UN2007|United Nations 2007]]</ref>

[[Oxfam]]'s 2024 report "Inequality, Inc" concludes that multinational corporations located in the [[Global North]] are "perpetuating a colonial style 'extractivist' model" across the Global South as the economies of the latter "are locked into exporting primary commodities, from copper to coffee" to these multinationals.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/inequality-inc|title=Inequality, Inc.: How corporate power divides our world and the need for a new era of public action|last=Riddell|first=Rebecca|display-authors=etal.|date=15 January 2024 |website=Oxfam International |publisher= |access-date=18 January 2024 |quote=}}
</ref>

=== International borrowing ===
{{see also|Criticism of the International Monetary Fund}}
American economist [[Jeffrey Sachs]] recommended that the entire African debt (c. US$200 billion) be dismissed, and recommended that African nations not repay either the [[World Bank]] or the [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF):<ref>{{cite news |title=Africa 'should not pay its debts' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3869081.stm |access-date=November 23, 2013 |date=July 6, 2004 |agency=[[BBC News]] }}</ref>

{{Blockquote|The time has come to end this charade. The debts are unaffordable. If they won't cancel the debts, I would suggest obstruction; ''you'' do it, yourselves. Africa should say: "Thank you very much, but we need this money to meet the needs of children who are dying, right now, so, we will put the debt-servicing payments into urgent social investment in health, education, drinking water, the control of AIDS, and other needs".}}

=== Conservation and neocolonialism ===
Wallerstein, and separately Frank, claim that the modern [[conservation movement]], as practiced by international organisations such as the [[World Wide Fund for Nature]], inadvertently developed a neocolonial relationship with underdeveloped nations.<ref>In a manner consistent with [[Immanuel Wallerstein]]'s [[world-systems theory]] (Wallerstein, 1974) and [[Andre Gunder Frank]]'s [[dependency theory]] (Frank, 1975).</ref>

=== Science ===
{{Excerpt|Neo-colonial science}}