Capitalism As Civilisation

Abstract

The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living. And just as they seem to be occupied with revolutionizing themselves and things, creating something that did not exist before, precisely in such epochs of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service, borrowing from them names, battle slogans, and costumes in order to present this new scene in world history in time-honored disguise and borrowed language. Karl Marx (1852) 1In July 2017, a strange scene unfolded at the G20 summit in Hamburg. Responding to a question by an Ivorian journalist about the possibility of a Marshall Plan for Africa, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, retorted, 'The challenge of Africa, it is totally different, it is much deeper, it is civilizational today. What are the problems in Africa? Failed states, the complex democratic transitions, demographic transitions, which is one of the main challenges facing Africa.' 2 Paradoxically, even though Macron understood the civilisational malaise of Africa to run deep, his prescriptions for overcoming it sounded somewhat pedestrian: regional security pacts with France, better infrastructure and public-private partnerships. What is familiar here is not only the framing of the perceived problem as one pertaining to 'civilisation' but also the solutions proposed. The idea that the non-European world was civilisationally inferior and that the influx of (Western) capital would remedy these shortcomings has been, I argue, constitutive of modern international law at least since its emergence as a distinct discipline during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 4 On the political economy of the Belt and Road Initiative and Chinese capitalism, see: Jerry Harris, 'China's Road from Socialism to Global Capitalism' (2018) 39 Third World Quarterly 1711-26; Liana M. Petranek, 'Paving a Concrete Path to Globalization with China's Belt and Road Initiative through the Middle East' (2019) 41 Arab Studies Quarterly 9-32.

Opening Access, Closing the Knowledge Gap? Analysing GC No. 25 on the Right to Science and Its Implications for the Global Science System in the Digital Age

“…One example is that the pressure to publish increases scientists' bias -the fact that negative findings are deemed less "publishable" and "citable" than positive findings is mirrored in greater numbers of publication containing positive findings. 104 All of this has been shown to be to the detriment of women in science, 105 and similar arguments could be made for other marginalised groups.…”

Regulating humanity's impact on the earth: The promise of transnational environmental law

“…Attention has also been drawn to ‘corporate imperialism’, the great power that multinationals possess to shape law in their own interests (Carroll, 2020; Sonarajah, 2006; Udofia, 1984) and who have engaged in transferring economic value from the South to the North (Carroll, 2020; Girvan, 1976). Corporate imperialism has been aided by globalization which established ‘informal empires such as those of free trade that intervening states use to serve the interests of their profit seeking companies’ (Gathii, 2019, p. 4; Chimni, 2012; Tzouvala, 2020). Consequently, global governance may be viewed through this lens as embodying ‘a highly uneven power structure for organising neoliberal globalisation’ (Mittelman, 2016, p. 675).…”

Avrupa Uygarlik Eşi̇ği̇nde Bâbiâli̇ : 1856 Pari̇s Andlaşmasi Temeli̇nde Uluslararasi Hukuk Ve Osmanli İmparatorluğu İli̇şki̇si̇ne Avrupalilarin Gözüyle Bi̇r Bakiş

“…Uygarlık eşiği kavramı, farklı devletler arasında hiyerarşi kurmanın yanında, Batılı olmayanların kapitalist üretim biçimine geçirilmelerini sağlayan kurumsal reform programı olarak anlaşılabilir. 42 Yüzyılın sonlarından itibaren uluslararası hukukun katkısıyla yerkürenin tamamına sirayet eden uygarlık eşiği, sömürgeciliğin kısa dönem menfaatlerinin uzun vadede kapitalist devletlerin inşasıyla uyumlaştırılmasında belirleyici hukukî yöntem olmuştur. 43 Nitekim Gong'un ölçütlerinin baskın şekilde kurumsal reformu gerektiren -yani devlet örgütlenmesini kapitalist üretime uyarlayan-ölçütler olduğu görülmektedir.…”

“…42 Yüzyılın sonlarından itibaren uluslararası hukukun katkısıyla yerkürenin tamamına sirayet eden uygarlık eşiği, sömürgeciliğin kısa dönem menfaatlerinin uzun vadede kapitalist devletlerin inşasıyla uyumlaştırılmasında belirleyici hukukî yöntem olmuştur. 43 Nitekim Gong'un ölçütlerinin baskın şekilde kurumsal reformu gerektiren -yani devlet örgütlenmesini kapitalist üretime uyarlayan-ölçütler olduğu görülmektedir. Avrupalı devletler, yatırımlarını, uygarlık eşiğinin sonucu olan kapitülasyonlarla veya eşitsiz andlaşmalarla korumakta ve geliştirdikleri hukukî kurumlar da kapitalist yatırımcının çıkarlarına hizmet etmektedir.…”