Richard Saull

Locating the Global South in the Theorisation of the Cold War: capitalist development, social revolution and geopolitical conflict

In this article I seek to outline an alternative way of theorising the place of the ‘South’ in the understanding of the Cold War. In contrast to mainstream theories of the Cold War within International Relations that suggest a rather subordinate or background role, separate from the primary causal dynamic of the Cold War—the bilateral superpower antagonism—I put forward an argument that places the South at the centre of the Cold War. I do this by defining the Cold War as a form of global social conflict between states and social forces associated with the rival social systems of capitalism and communism. Through this I argue that the superpowers should be understood as states with specific socioeconomic properties and contradictions, reflecting forms of politics not confined to themselves alone. Consequently, the Cold War should be seen as a form of globalised social conflict between the expanding and uneven nature of capitalism and the communist revolutionary challenges to it carried through by revolutionary movements in the South. The Cold War, then, was as much about the revolutionary consequences of uneven capitalist development as it was about the bipolar relationship.

Neoliberalism and the Far-Right: A Contradictory Embrace

This article examines the contradictory relationship between neoliberalism and the politics of the far-right. It seeks to identify and explain the divergence of the ‘economic’ and the social/cultural spheres under neoliberalism (notably in articulations of race and class and the ‘politics of whiteness’) and how such developments play out in the politics of the contemporary far-right. We also seek to examine the degree to which the politics of the far-right pose problems for the consolidation and long-term stabilization of neoliberalism, through acting as a populist source of pressure on the conservative-right and tapping into sources of alienation amongst déclassé social layers. Finally, we locate the politics of the far-right within the broader atrophying of political representation and accountability of the neoliberal era with respect to the institutional and legal organization of neoliberalism at the international level, as most obviously highlighted in the ongoing crisis of the EU and Eurozone.

The Cold War and after : capitalism, revolution and superpower politics

Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: History and Theory in the Cold War 2. The International Impact of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Early Cold War, 1917-1945 3. The Cold War Transformed: Geopolitical Restructuring and a New Wave of Social Revolution, 1945-49 4. The Militarization of Cold War: The Containment of the USSR 4 and the Emergence of New Revolutionary Fronts, 1950-62 5. The Final Gasp of Cold War: The Decline of US Military Superiority and the Expansion of International Communist Power, 1962-80 6. Ending the Cold War: From Militarized Counter-Revolution to the Collapse of Soviet Communism, 1980-91 7. Conclusions: Tracing the Paradoxical Ends of the Cold War and the Origins of Contemporary Conflict in World Politics Select Bibliography Index

Capitalist Development and the Rise and ‘Fall’ of the Far-Right

This article offers an alternative account of the European far-right from those prevailing in comparative politics and the history of ideas literatures. The article focuses on: (i) the historical evolution of the European far-right from its late 19th-century origins to its contemporary form as a current of anti-globalization; and (ii) the way in which international capitalist development explains the generalized emergence and ‘success’ of the far-right. I argue that uneven capitalist development has been integral to the evolution of the far-right. It has been the geopolitical expressions of capitalist development that best account for enabling domestic political contexts that have facilitated far-right mobilizations. Consequently, whilst the far-right has re-emerged, because of the post-1945 decoupling of uneven capitalist development from geopolitical rivalry, the international and domestic social, political and ideological resources that the contemporary far-right can draw upon are considerably weaker than the historical far-right.

Neoliberalism and the Far-Right: An Introduction

The four articles in this symposium were originally presented as papers at a research workshop on ‘the right and neoliberalism’ held at Queen Mary, University of London, in September 2015. The impetus for the workshop was twofold. First, to reflect on and engage with the avalanche of academic literature and commentary (Gamble, 2009; Mason, 2009; Crouch, 2011; Roubini and Mihm, 2011; Mirowski, 2013) that had emerged in response to the 2008 global financial crisis and, in particular, the question of the ongoing durability and resilience of the neoliberal regime of political economy across the mature capitalist democracies. Secondly, the role of the right and, notably, farright political currents both within neoliberalism and in many of the political responses to the 2008 crisis. Writing this introduction in the wake of the decision by UK voters in June 2016 to depart from the European Union and the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency in November of the same year on a platform defined by nationalist and racist rhetoric and scapegoating reveals all too starkly the connections between neoliberalism and the right that the original workshop was concerned with exploring. These two ‘political earthquakes’ in the liberal political imagination are, obviously, significant in themselves and have been, and will be, for some time, the subject of critical and scholarly analysis, especially given the intersections of race, class and gender in the politics of ‘Trumpism’ and ‘Brexit’. However, it is also important to note – and this is what the articles in this symposium all recognize and comment on, in various ways – that not only was the ‘political brew’ that produced the political outcomes of Brexit and Trump long in the making, but they also reveal what could be seen as organic or constitutive pathologies or contradictions within the political economy of neoliberalism that, in many respects, dates back to the emergence of this distinct ideo-political framework in the 1930s. The articles here, then, provide an overview of some of the longstanding connections between the politics of the right and the far-right and neoliberalism. And whilst the aim of the articles (based on the workshop papers) is not to provide an informed political response or diagnosis to the consequences of the 2008 crisis and the subsequent revival of the far-right across much of the advanced capitalist world, it is hoped that they provide a set of useful critical contextualizations that bring out the important connections between the forces of the right and neoliberalism from which progressive and left-leaning political responses can build on. What we intend to do in the rest of the introduction is to outline some of the key arguments within each of the four articles before moving onto a preliminary assessment of the political 712965 CRS0010.1177/0896920517712965Critical SociologySYPMOSIUM: Neoliberalism and the Far-Right research-article2017

Transforming Citizenship and Political Community: The Case of French Revolutionary Internationalism

Since the end of the Cold War the meaning of citizenship and, in particular, the possibilities for constructing a new type of political community beyond the ethical boundaries of the nation-state have been the subject of increasing scholarly and popular debate. In focusing on the importance of ideas and values, cosmopolitan approaches tend to suffer from an excessive idealism where their normative claims are not always substantively realised in the actual citizenship practices of the political communities they make claims about. The problem of `̀ excessive idealism’’ , however, is not only identi® able in the present but also, and more importantly for the claims that many cosmopolitan thinkers make, in the possibilities for future transformation to deepen and/or expand the nature of political community. By avoiding a discussion of the human, social agents of transformation, cosmopolitanism ends up giving transformative power to ideas alone, without discussing how such ideas might inform human behaviour and the construction of new social and political institutions that might substantively realise cosmopolitan ideas. This article seeks to offer an alternative discussion of citizenship and a different historical framework with which to understand its evolution, and through this a different perspective on the contemporary possibilities for rede® ning and extending political community beyond the legal and moral borders of

Racism and Far Right Imaginaries Within Neo-liberal Political Economy

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the connections between neo-liberalism and the politics of the far right through the prism of race. Contesting the claims of neo-liberal theorists and politicians as to its ‘post-racial’ character, it seeks to both historise the significance of racism within neo-liberalism through its connections to liberal political thought and practice over the longue durée and examine the relationship between neo-liberalism and far right politics. It does this through (1) highlighting the political significance of the far right in securing the electoral–political hegemony of neo-liberalism within Britain and the United States since the early 1980s; and (2) the way in which the socio-economic insecurities produced by neo-liberalism have helped to provoke far right responses as an alternative form of racialised moral economy. Consequently, while the relationship between the far right and neo-liberalism is contradictory, racial signifiers and racism have provided an important means through which such contradictions have been eased.