Claire Doyle - Blog Post 1

 In the first couple weeks of this class, as we begin an introduction to international politics, I have found there to be some unique takeaways that I had not previously considered going into the course. For one, our discussion on "Of the Culture of White Folk" was particularly eye opening for me considering how old it was, but how accurate some of the points Dubois made. This relates to one of our lectures describing how international relations are typically stable and do not vary much over time. Despite this being typically true, we can still observe the general trend of adaptation and conformation to the norms set forth by society based on the wants and needs of people. 

Delving more specifically in this reading and our discussion of it in class, we can observe the impact of colonialism on the world. For example, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries we can observe the desire for Western expansion into smaller territories or attempts to claim land in Africa through the Berlin conference in 1884. While in modern society we no longer see such typical campaigns to expand and claim territories, we still see the overinfluence of capitalism used to assert our impact as a Western culture on other nations. Large corporations such as Amazon will outsource as a means of getting cheap labor through exploitation of workers. While this is not a direct colonialist effort, this still seeks to take advantage of weaker nations for our own benefit. One particular passage of Dubois' work describes: "Such as they are, civilization must naturally raise them, but soberly and in limited ways. They are not simply dark white men. They are not "men" in the sense that Europeans are men. To the very limited extent of their shallow capacities lift them to be useful to whites; to raise cotton, gather rubber, fetch ivory, dig diamonds; and let them be paid what men think they are worth? -- white men who know them to be well-nigh worthless" The exploitation of the black (as well as other cultures and races) worker has long been a backbone of American and Western capitalism. 

Much of this relates to our lecture on power within international relations. Perhaps in the past we have seen different forms of power being exerted on smaller, weaker countries than we do today. In the past, countries engaged more in direct forms of power influence, such as discursive or structural, through direct ownership of one country by another. More indirect forms of power shine through institutional power (via the indirect influence of a country, such as Taiwan) and soft power (via how we control things such as culture and academics).

Dubois made many key arguments that have stood the test of time, which proves international relations to hold very stable over time.