‘The Dust of Empire’: the Dialectic of Self-Determination and Re-colonisation in the First Phase of the Cold War

What About The Fourth World "Self"?

“…Baxi (2020, p. 401) is even effusive in the sense that there is no "world history of the Cold War". Nevertheless, he shows that there are five aspects in this period whose relevance is generally accepted, such as (a) the emergence of "new" nations based on a right that was 'universally' created/assured after World War II; (b) the imposition of an European tradition on such nations, about which they did not have the opportunity to express their opinion, leading to the maintenance of their epistemic confinement; (c) the predominance of injustices based on a soft decision-making structure forged at the UN General Assembly; (d) the inexistence of an environmental and ecological concern, exemplified by the increase of some nations' nuclear power; (e) the assumption that the emergence of "new" subjects in the international arena that would largely depend on the concomitant understanding that "old" subjects would be the paradigm to be reached/targeted (BAXI, 2020). These five observations are key to understanding the post-Westphalia myth.…”

“…Nevertheless, a great question he poses is noteworthy: who was the "self" that would self-determine in this CW post-Westphalian times? In this aspect, the author introduces the difference between self-determination from the perspective of V. Lenin and W. Wilson, expressing that, while the first sought to establish an internal concept of self-determination based on the idea that there could not be minorities being oppressed by majorities, the second defended external self-determination, aimed at creating communities within certain borders when they presented homogeneous characteristics (BAXI, 2020).…”