Empire,Race,and Ethnicity

Abstract

The year 2005 will mark sixty years since the end of the Second World War. During that time, social scientists have tried to conceptualize the world in terms of race and ethnic relations. Old imperial orders collapsed and a process of liberation from White domination in South Africa had already begun within the context of the Cold War. At the same time, a process of modernization began in the imperial metropolises, leading to the emergence of a kind of Welfare State designed to overcome class conflict, but having to cope with the integration of sub-national and migrant minorities. In 1989, the bipolar power situation, internationally, ended with the collapse of Communism. There occurred a new transfer of populations; refugees replaced economic migrants as the principle group that had either to be integrated or become the major focus of national conflicts. Internationally, American world hegemony came into being. America and its subordinate allies saw themselves as faced with a wide range of resistance taking the form of terrorism, but also with new rogue states as their enemies. This paper reviews the ways in which race and ethnic relations have been conceptualized at various stages in this process.