ABSTRACT

This book explores the concept of cultural chauvinism as the sense of superiority that ethnic or national groups have of themselves relative to others, particularly in the context of international relations.

Minabere Ibelema shows the various ways that academics, statesmen, and especially journalists, express their cultural groups’ sense of superiority over others. The analysis pivots around the notion of “Western values” given its centrality in international relations and diplomacy. To the West, this stands for an array of largely positive political and civic values; to a significant portion of the global community, it embodies degeneracies. Ibelema argues that often the most routine expressions go under the radar, even in this age of hypersensitivity.

This book throws a unique light on global relations and will be of particular interest to scholars in international relations, communication studies and journalism studies.

chapter 1|9 pages

Many faces of cultural chauvinism

chapter 2|11 pages

Democracy is Western

chapter 3|9 pages

All things modern are Western

chapter 4|8 pages

All things nefarious are non-Western

chapter 5|5 pages

The hell of war is non-Western

chapter 6|9 pages

All things decadent are Western

chapter 7|5 pages

Immodest dressers and desecraters

chapter 8|11 pages

Contention not Confucian

chapter 9|10 pages

As democracies turn

chapter 10|10 pages

Dark history of distinctions

chapter 12|9 pages

Political convergence

chapter 13|8 pages

Onward from the bridgehead

chapter 14|11 pages

Cultural humility

chapter |3 pages

Postscript

An Oreo and Mozart