Ajao Blog Post #1

 Christine Ajao

Professor Shirk 

Internation Politics 

03 February 2022


    The study of international relations involves the relationships between different countries in politics, trade, economics, and other affairs. International relations has a dark history of slavery and colonization to build up certain countries, especially the Western ones. 

 Productive power is the ability to create the identities of their actors and their place in the world. This term is rooted in words like “civilized”, “rouge”, “European”, “Western”, etc. Productive power highlights the everyday relations of people. W.E. Dubois’s writing called “Of the Culture of White Folk”, discusses how Europe is seen as a great power when they have profited off colonizing other countries, especially countries with people of color. Dubois believes that European countries are greedy and says how shocked he is that they are now fighting again while the other colonized countries are just watching in shock. Dubois states “Why then is Europe great? Because of the foundations which the mighty past has furnished her to build upon The iron and trade of black Africa; the religion and empire-building of yellow Asia; the art and science of the "dago" Mediterranean shore east, south and west as well as north” (Dubois 438). This is a problem is correlated with Zvobgo and Loken’s article titled “Why Race Matters in International Relations” where they dive into the fact that race is taken out of International Relations and how mainstream international relations does not include the important fact of slavery helping with globalization.  

     The two articles both identify the productive power of Europe and other Western civilizations.  Personally, I find both of these articles to show the hidden truth about the study of International Relations. W.E Dubois talks about how non-white countries during his time were left out of being seen as a great power and depleted for their resources. Dubois highlights the bias that people have toward European countries without remembering how they were able to become so powerful. Zvobgo and Loken’s article solidifies this claim. They discuss how this race is still cut out from international relations and still is a prevalent issue.

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