https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.207
Ulrich Oslender
uoslender@geog.gla.ac.uk
University of Glasgow, Scotland UK
Abstract:
Ours is a historic moment crucial for the redefinition of political, economic and socialrelations, characterised by growing polarisations and the establishing of a single superpowerwith changing allies. Within this scenario, war as a tool and intervention for opening newterrains to specific economic interests has acquired an important role. I will argue in thisarticle that there has been a qualitative shift in contemporary wars towards «geo-economicwars» that frequently involve non-state actors. Since these phenomena have acquired a globaldimension, they cannot be resolved any longer merely at regional or national scale. Facedwith the political and economic processes of an aggressive globalisation, there exists theneed to create also a globalisation of resistance, of solidarities, justice and peace.I will contextualise these debates with the examples of 1) the mobilisations that took placein Great Britain against the recent War in Iraq, and 2) the forms of resistance of blackcommunities in Colombia’s Pacific coast region against the war that has taken hold of thisregion in recent years. I thus propose to examine two examples of localised resistances thatare inscribed at the same time in a global movement against the new geo-economic wars.
Keywords: geo-economic wars, geopolitics, War in Iraq, globalisation, resistance, Colombia,Pacific coast, black communities.
