Why are some countries treated as natural leaders of the international community, while others are described mainly as problems to be managed? Why does independence sometimes leave a country with limited control over its economic future? And whose experiences count when we explain how the world works?
Postcolonialism brings these questions into International Relations. It asks us to examine the relationship between contemporary world politics and the history of empire.
Its central argument is straightforward: ending formal colonial rule does not automatically erase the institutions, inequalities and assumptions that colonialism helped create.
What is the postcolonial model?
Although often described as a model or theory, postcolonialism is better understood as a family of critical approaches. Its scholars differ, but share an interest in how colonial domination shaped the international order and how its legacies continue to influence political life.
This involves two connected investigations. One concerns inequalities between and within societies. The other concerns International Relations itself: whether its theories give sufficient attention to colonial history and the experiences of colonised peoples. The Open University provides a useful introduction to both dimensions.
The word “postcolonial” therefore needs care. It does not mean that colonial power has disappeared or that every country has moved neatly into an identical historical phase. It asks what changes, what survives and what takes new forms after colonial rule.
Empire belongs inside the story
International politics is often introduced as a system of sovereign states competing or cooperating with one another. Postcolonial thinkers question what disappears when that becomes our starting point.
States did not all enter the international system on equal terms. Conquest, dispossession and colonial administration were part of the system’s formation, rather than peripheral events.
Sanjay Seth argues that understanding the international order requires recognising its colonial origins. His critique challenges accounts that treat European experience as the universal foundation of world politics. Read Seth’s Postcolonial Theory and the Critique of International Relations.
This changes the questions we ask. Alongside “How powerful is this state?”, we should ask “How did it acquire that power?” Alongside “Why is this country economically vulnerable?”, we should investigate how its position developed historically.
Historical explanation does not remove responsibility from present governments. It gives us a fuller account of the conditions in which they act.
Power also shapes how people are represented
Power operates through language and knowledge as well as armies and money.
Edward Said’s work on Orientalism is influential here. It examines how representations of the East became entangled with Western authority. In International Relations, this encourages scrutiny of descriptions that present whole societies as backward, irrational or incapable of governing themselves.
Shampa Biswas develops the relevance of Said’s work to international politics, connecting cultural representation with questions of empire, power and difference. Her article explores Said as an International Relations thinker.
Consider a hypothetical intervention debate in which outside powers describe themselves as bringing order to a population portrayed only as helpless or dangerous. A postcolonial analysis would investigate how that framing establishes authority, whose testimony receives attention and whether local political alternatives are being overlooked.
That inquiry does not settle whether intervention is justified. It exposes assumptions that should be examined before a judgement is made.
Independence, inequality and agency
Political independence matters enormously. But legal sovereignty and practical freedom of action are different things.
A government might possess formal authority while facing severe constraints from debt, dependence on particular exports or decisions made beyond its borders. A postcolonial approach asks whether colonial economic relationships help explain those constraints, and how contemporary institutions sustain or alter them.
It also examines differences within countries. National independence does not guarantee that women, minorities or poorer communities gain equal influence. Scholarship in this tradition therefore brings race, gender and culture into the analysis of international power. Race, Gender, and Culture in International Relations explores these connections.
Yet portraying formerly colonised societies only as victims would reproduce another distortion. They also organise, negotiate, resist and create political alternatives.
The 1955 Asian-African Conference at Bandung offers a powerful example. Its communiqué opposed colonialism and racial discrimination and supported cooperation among participating countries. It demonstrates that international order has also been shaped through collective action outside the established imperial centres. The conference’s final communiqué is preserved in the UN Digital Library.
How does it compare with other theories?
The earlier discussion of realism on wezg.co.uk focused on power, security and competition. Postcolonialism asks how historical domination helped produce the actors and inequalities within that competition.
The discussion of liberalism examined cooperation and institutions. Postcolonialism asks whose interests institutions reflect and whether participants have comparable influence.
These are useful questions to bring to either approach. They encourage us to examine the foundations of an explanation as well as its conclusions.
Where the approach needs care
Postcolonial analysis becomes weaker if colonialism is used as a complete explanation for every contemporary problem. Domestic political choices, class interests, regional rivalries and institutional failures also require investigation.
Equally, neither “the West” nor “the Global South” is a single actor with one outlook. Broad categories can conceal disagreement and inequality.
The strongest application therefore identifies specific mechanisms. Which historical arrangement matters? How does it influence the present? What evidence supports that connection?
Postcolonialism’s contribution is to make our understanding of world politics more historically grounded and more attentive to voices that dominant accounts can overlook. It asks us to judge the international order partly through the experiences of those who have lived under its hierarchies—and to consider what meaningful equality would require.
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