Race, conflict and the international order

While there are many books on race issues, this is the first extended study
to examine race as a factor in international relations,
The waning of white, imperial domination in the second half of this
century has changed the balance of forces and - perhaps even more
important - the ideology of international relations. The white nations are
on the defensive; the black and brown demand recognition of the equality
of races.
The author begins with a discussion of the ideology of white racism, and
describes how it was institutionalised in the USA, the British Empire
and in other European colonies. He examines the major twentieth-century
wars as the catalyst in the break-up of the imperial system. In surveying
the 'post-imperial' development of pressures and conflicts, he pays
particular attention to the United Nations as the arena in which these are
most strongly operative.
He then shows the connection between international relations and the
internal contemporary situation the West, where racial dominance is
exercised within the metropolitan countries that have attracted Third
World labour, and where the United States is wrestling with the demands
of its 'colonised peoples. In analysing the ways and means in which the
Third World probes the weaknesses of the West, he shows how the power-
less may exert pressure on the powerful.
He demonstrates that 'race' - however amorphous as a category of
political and social analysis – is emerging as the dominant force in the
late twentieth century. This has been highlighted by the evolution of the
Rhodesian problem since the mid-1960s, and the dramatic developments
of September 1976 form the climax of the book.
Hugh Tinker is Professor of Politics in the University of Lancaster.
He was formerly Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Common-
wealth Studies, University of London, Professor of Government and
Politics in the University of London, and Director of the Institute of
Race Relations. His most recent books are A New System of Slavery
(1974), Separate and Unequal (1976) and The Banyan Tree: Overseas
Emigrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (1977).