CLH Discussions: What is the Neocolonialism and how can Humanists respond?

What is the Neocolonialism and how can Humanists respond to it?

When a country occupies, dominates and extracts wealth from another with direct means of might and violence we call it colonialism.

But what if one country buys up the infrastructure of another or exerts so much political influence that the chains might as well still be there, albeit invisibly?

Those could be examples of Neocolonialism, domination by indirect means.

Ostensibly now free and independent, several former colonies in Africa describe their situations as continuing exploitation and manipulation from outside forces, be they Western through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or Chinese through the Belt and Road Initiative.

What about Russia in first Crimea, then the rest of Ukraine? Israel in Palestine? The US occupying the Middle East, treating the UK as a vassal state and now threatening to buy Greenland whether they agree to or not?

Has the world truly changed much in the last hundred years or have the old empires and new superstates simply done a rebranding exercise?

And if it continues to escalate are we headed into an era of "political realism" as the field of international relations calls it where: "The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must"

How should we react? Can we solve it, mitigate it or must we simply adapt to whatever the world of the Neocolonialism will look like in five, ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred years ahead?

What can we as Humanists, both as individuals and as a movement do?

🎟️ Free to attend. Donations welcome.
👥 Newcomers and non-members very welcome!
💬 Come along, bring your thoughts—and your questions.

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Join us for open discussion on all these points. We will begin with a short presentation of the concepts and then open the floor to participants to have their say.

To allow for more free discussions, this type of event is never recorded
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Date: Thursday 12th February 2026
Time: 7pm - 8:30pm
Venue: Zoom (Link provided upon RSVP)
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References and Suggested Reading

Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neocolonialism

Database:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/neocolonialism

Britain is now following a developing country economic model – and we know where that leads:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/06/britain-us-uk-assets-economic-disaster-labour

Neocolonialism in Gaza:
https://newint.org/colonialism/2026/neocolonialism-gaza

Mandarin in South African Schools: A Case of Neocolonialism?:
https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2025/06/14/mandarin-in-south-african-schools-a-case-of-neocolonialism/

The Neocolonial Risks Facing Venezuela’s Oil Sector:
https://www.energyintel.com/0000019b-c5fc-db06-a1bf-f5ff19aa0000

Neocolonialism and the IMF:
https://harvardpolitics.com/neocolonialism-imf/

Understanding Neocolonial And Neo-Nazi Practices In 21st Century: Manifestations And Approaches To Counteraction:
https://www.eurasiareview.com/25012026-understanding-neocolonial-and-neo-nazi-practices-in-21st-century-manifestations-and-approaches-to-counteraction-oped/

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