Review of: Histories of Hate: The Radical Right in Aotearoa New Zealand, Matthew Cunningham, Marinus La Rooij and Paul Spoonley (eds) (2022) Otago: Otago University Press, 440 pp., ISBN 978 1 99004 840 1 (pbk), NZ$50
This work focuses upon a method of expansion often overlooked when examining comparative aspects of the growth of empires, namely that territory can be attained through purchase or lease. It identifies a colonial process that, while seeming to have disappeared under the historical radar, remains one of the most powerful determiners of the modern world's political landscape. It also suggests that empires, contrary to common belief, do not have to be state led and that a variety of other imperial actors can participate in such a process. By drawing attention to this particular method of territorial expansion and the variety of potential players involved, this work underscores the continuing relevance of imperial studies. It simultaneously suggests a need to begin rethinking our understanding of what empires are, how they can be formed and who imperial players can be.
The years post-World War II were not necessarily a period of independence for everyone. This is especially the case for a number of Pacific locales, West Papua in particular, wherein one colonial power seems to have merely been switched for another. What is more, this takeover was done with the connivance of the United Nations (UN), a non-state agency which, following World War II, was designed to maintain the peace. By way of the 1969 UN-brokered Act of Free Choice, the peoples of this former Dutch colony were instead subjected to an invading Indonesian military and colonial culture. This work, whilst not only drawing attention to an under-discussed process of recolonization in the Pacific, focuses upon another, albeit overlooked method by which empires can be created, namely by way of a non-state agency. In doing so it critiques theories of empire that concentrate primarily upon large state-led entities characterized by physical conquest. Whilst it is true that big state-led powers with vast military forces bent on conquering other sovereign states are the most easily discernible of empires, we argue that this is only one type and that colonialism needs to be differentiated. We suggest that other actors, including non-state players such as private companies, religious organizations, filibusters and now, as emphasized here, international/inter-governmental organizations, should be scrutinized too.
The science fiction film Avatar will be examined in light of the social-political context in which it was written, demonstrating the director's highly charged critique of US foreign policy. Yet this paper also argues that the depiction of the alien native species remains problematic from a postcolonial perspective. "Decolonising Pandora" addresses too the ways that Avatar has been used for political ends by peoples throughout the world, while acting as a vehicle for a critical examination of traditional definitions of empire and imperial history overall.
