John Rawls’s The Law of Peoples

John Rawls’s The Law of Peoples From its beginnings, Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) has produced conflict in post-colonial studies. Does Professor Said’s theory suggest global implications and/or strategies as Culture and Imperialism (1993) argues? Or does the East of Orientalism belong only to the Middle East and particularly to Middle Eastern studies? Is there a monolithic "Othering" at work? Or do resistive pockets exist within Western imperial discourse? Perhaps the thorniest issue, however, concerns the stance from which to view global issues of imperialism and colonization. Ethical decisions—judgments, in a word—should play a large part in post-colonial theorizing and critiques. But on what basis can judgments be made? Where should accountability lie? And if there is accountability, how can it be enforced? Moreover, there has been a recent shift in the major players in the 21st century version of the Great Game. Said and Bhabha have, in characteristically fine ways, questioned the stability of the term “nation.” “National identity” may now be seen more as a “notional identity.” But does it matter any more? Does national identity even count? These questions come on the heels of global political reactions to global capitalist institutions (multinational corporations) and the global political institutions wholly owned and operated by them. By global capitalist institutions, I mean organizations like Bertelsmann, Aramco, Merck, Sony, Microsoft, Daimler-Benz, and so on. By global political institutions, I refer to the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO, and the various protectors of Intellectual Property. Imperialism and colonization must now be looked at in terms of these global institutions, rather than in political or even cultural terms. The dichotomies first world/third world, east/west, north/south, developed/underdeveloped do not hold the relevance they once had. There are thus two issues to be faced: first, how to establish a foundational basis for ethical judgments, and second, how to theorize resistance to the new economic imperialism which has changed rather radically from the old imperialism of nation-state or region and which has rendered Samuel Huntington’s “clashes of culture” obsolete. Critics of both of these situations must ask where to look for guiding principles upon which to base judgments within a global context. I want to avoid both the hegemonic “westernization” of democratic/capitalist values and the seemingly benign cultural relativism that avoids any standards of ethical or political judgment.