Racism and International Relations

Abstract

The paper deals with racism based on colour as a factor in international relations. White racism has created a vertical schism in the international system as well as in several national subsystems. The revolt of the non-white peoples against white racism, both at the systemic and at the subsystemic level has led to a global race conflict which threatens to undermine the stability of the international system. Neither the ‘class theory’ nor the ‘caste theory’ explains the social stratification represented by contemporary colour racism; it must be regarded as an independent sociological category. One solution to the problem of global racism lies in a structural reorganization of the economic relations between the white and the non-white peoples, along with the promotion of global communication with effective feedback across the colour line. It is also necessary to substitute the new paradigm of world order for the old paradigm of national sovereignty.