Geopol, Moore 2022

The Significance of W.E.B. Du Bois’s Decolonial Geopolitics

How has Du Bois influenced geography?

Du Bois’s idea of double consciousness has been used to study Black experiences, including responses to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

What is traditional geopolitics?

A state-centred approach focused on territory, rivalry, military power, resources, and great powers.

How did critical geopolitics challenge traditional geopolitics?

It rejected the “God’s eye” view and examined how political identities and spatial ideas are socially constructed.

What did Du Bois argue was central to world politics?

Race, imperialism, and white supremacy rather than just states and territory.

What was Du Bois’s “colour line”?

The idea that global politics and conflict are fundamentally shaped by racial divisions and colonial domination.

How did Du Bois explain World War I?

He argued it was driven by imperial competition to exploit colonised peoples and “darker races.”

Why was Japan important to Du Bois?

Japan’s victory over Russia in 1905 showed that a non-Western power could defeat a European empire.

What is Pan-Africanism?

A movement promoting solidarity and liberation among people of African descent worldwide.

How did Du Bois connect global struggles?

He linked African American freedom struggles with anti-colonial movements in places like India and Africa.

What is decolonial geopolitics?

A geopolitics focused on challenging empire, racism, and hierarchy while imagining alternative global futures.

What is subaltern geopolitics?

An approach that centres the voices and experiences of marginalised and colonised peoples.

What is epistemic exclusion?

The marginalisation of race and non-Western perspectives in geopolitical knowledge.

What did postcolonial thinkers contribute to geopolitics?

They analysed colonialism from the perspective of the colonised rather than imperial powers.

What is meant by Anglophone linguistic privilege?

The dominance of English-language perspectives in global knowledge and geopolitics.

What is the key contribution of Du Boisan geopolitics?

It highlights the lasting influence of empire, racism, and global racial hierarchy in world politics.