The Institute for Comparative Modernities (ICM) is pleased to host Oumar Ba for a new conversation, “Rethinking Liberal Internationalism: Imperialism, Pacification, Humanity.” 

Description

Drawing from Historical IR, political and postcolonial theory, I argue that imperialism is the albatross of liberalism and that humanity, as the primary referent for western modernity, operates against the backdrop of colonialism, which at its core, is the denial of humanity, wherein lesser humans could not be included in the global community. The Liberal International Order thus came to be through the delineation of the lesser, un- (or otherwise) human, who are unworthy of protection from the laws of war, the crimes against humanity and the frameworks of human rights.

Bio

Oumar Ba is Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at Cornell. His primary areas of research focus on law, violence, race, humanity, and world order(s) in global politics. He is the author of States of Justice: The Politics of the International Criminal Court (Cambridge, 2020). His writings have appeared in Human Rights Quarterly, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, PS: Political Science & Politics, Journal of Narrative Politics, African Studies Review , Africa Today, Foreign Affairs, The New York Review of Books, The Washington Post, among others. His opinions have been featured in a number of media outlets including Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, and BBC.