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This paper will review very recent experience with Official Development Assistance, updating a chapter to be published in an edited book during 2026. Deteriorating international security and the rightward political shift in the Global North has increasingly marginalised the Global South.

Paper long abstract

This paper will review very recent experience with Official Development Assistance, updating a chapter to be published in an edited book during 2026. The discussion will present illustrative data, providing evidence in terms of the level and composition of ODA, as well as examples of the impact that reductions in ODA has in recipient and donor countries. Deteriorating international security and the rightward political shift in the Global North have increasingly marginalised the Global South meaning that ODA is not by any means the only area where these changes have been detrimental to the socio-economic development of the Global South. Examples from international trade and finance, global health measures and responses to climate change will be presented as evidence.

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This paper shows how colonial sugar cane production in Maui reshaped land and water systems, intensifying the 2023 forest fires. Plantation irrigation, land clearing, and the displacement of Indigenous governance produced fire-prone landscapes, amplifying wildfire risk under climate stress.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines how colonial development trajectories in Maui reshaped land and water systems, increasing the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, with particular attention to the legacy of sugar cane production. It argues that plantation-era infrastructure, epistemic erasure of Indigenous ecological knowledge, and settler-colonial political economy reconfigured ecosystems to prioritise extractive accumulation over ecological resilience. Irrigation works, stream diversions, wetland drainage, and land clearing for sugar cane monoculture transformed hydrological and vegetative regimes, producing dry, fire-prone landscapes that persist long after the decline of the plantations.

Rather than treating the 2023 Maui wildfires as an anomalous climate event or a failure of emergency response, the paper situates them within a longer history of colonial development that reorganised natural processes. Indigenous systems of watershed management and fire-adaptive landscapes were displaced by legal, scientific, and bureaucratic frameworks that defined land and water as productive inputs rather than relational ecologies. These transformations did not merely shape risk exposure but also altered how climate stress manifests materially on the ground.

Drawing on and extending existing scholarship on the production of vulnerability, the paper shows how development operates as a historical process that conditions disaster outcomes over time. By tracing the connections between sugar cane production, water governance, and contemporary wildfire risk, the analysis demonstrates how colonial infrastructures continue to structure environmental instability in the present. The Maui case contributes to decolonising development debates by showing that reducing disaster risk requires confronting the historical and institutional foundations of development models that amplify natural disasters.

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Malaysian palm oil exports to Europe -- originated as colonial primary commodity -- has been framed as an environmental and health threat reflecting a core–periphery relationship through neocolonial forms of economic and discursive regulation and white supremacy ‘political ecology’ imaginaries.

Paper long abstract

The historical and contemporary development of Malaysian palm oil exports to Europe originated as a colonial primary commodity cultivated under British rule for western European markets. Palm oil has since become a widely used global ingredient and a competitor product. In recent years, Malaysian palm oil has been increasingly framed in Europe as an environmental and health threat, associated with tropical deforestation and sustainability concerns. We argue that this shift reflects the continued maintenance of a core–periphery relationship, through neocolonial forms of economic and discursive regulation in which European industries and states redefine the value and perception of palm oil as a perpetual primary commodity from the Global South that causes environmental and social harm. These processes are also based on white supremacy ‘political ecology’ imaginaries. We argue that these dynamics perpetuate unequal exchange between western European and Malaysian economic markets and actors. Based on fieldwork conducted in Malaysia, England, and Germany, we present our preliminary findings using a transdisciplinary approach combining artistic research, critical political ecology, global value chain analysis, and structural theories of unequal development.

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The fascinating story of the Padma Bridge constructed by Bangladesh, challenging the funding withdrawal by WB. Reviews the lessons from this project and also from two other projects (Aswan Dam and Bokaro Steel plant) for which the original promised foreign funding failed to materialise as well.

Paper long abstract

This paper aims to review the lessons from three major challenging projects for which the foreign funding as originally expected failed to materialise: Padma Bridge of Bangladesh, Aswan Dam of Egypt and Bokaro Steel Plant of India. In particular, the governance issue as raised by the World Bank in the case of the Padma Bridge project of Bangladesh needs to be closely attended as this is often a major concern in the public sector projects in many developing countries. Also, the urgency to attend to macro-economic stability for faster economic development needs to be strongly emphasised, thus necessitating to attend to the two main gaps (the savings-investment gap and the foreign exchange gap) which have remained as major hurdles for economic development of most developing countries. So, the relevant developments as taking place in Third World countries will be closely reviewed. Indeed, there is a clear message: a developing country should not take it for granted that even if a project is economically sound, it will necessarily bring external funding. Hence the urgency to endeavour to improve its own financial capability and, in particular, make every attempt to raise its savings and also increase its foreign exchange earnings, thus ensuring its ability to close the savings-investment and the foreign exchange gaps, the two major gaps constraining faster economic growth. Indeed, without sound macro-economic management and good governance, a developing country will continue to experience difficulties, thus perpetuating its underdevelopment (see, e.g., A Clunies-Ross, et al, 2009; and M Huq, forthcoming).

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Developing an ‘ideational performativity’ framework, this paper shows how mainstream economics performs and stabilizes contemporary economic imperialism by embedding transnational capital’s interests in its theories and calculative devices, illustrated through the case of New Development Economics.

Paper long abstract

Mainstream economics, through its considerable influence within corridors of power and its close association with the neoliberal zeitgeist, plays a key role in enabling contemporary economic imperialism. This article unpacks that idea through two main contributions: First, a novel analytical framework is introduced by bringing together performativity (a techno-cultural approach to study markets) and Marxian political economy. For salient ontological and epistemological reasons, a revivified version of Neo-Gramscianism rooted in critical realism is deployed in this synthesis, giving rise to what is termed ‘ideational performativity’. The developed framework offers the analytical capability to interrogate how, and to what extent, the assumptions embedded in economic theories and their attendant calculative devices are shaped by ideas advanced by the prevailing historical political-economic bloc, and how, in turn, these devices function to reproduce and stabilize that historical bloc.

Second, the framework is applied to explore the mutual constitution of economics imperialism (the disciplinary overreach of mainstream economics and its calculative devices) and economic imperialism (the material reproduction of global hierarchies) through a critical examination of New Development Economics (NDE) and its two constituent research agendas: new institutional economics of development divergence and poor economics of development. The article traces the ideational-performative effects of tenets of NDE back to the intersubjectivities (serving the interests of capital) and the ideological foundation underpinning them, highlighting how NDE’s calculative devices, couched in the positivist epistemology of economics, tend to entrench the interests of the prevailing transnational neoliberal bloc and function as technologies of imperial governance in periphery.

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This paper reflects on the challenges of conducting decolonial research from within universities and INGOs in a settler-colonial context. Drawing on my PhD research in Aotearoa New Zealand, it examines how research ethics, consent, and institutional norms reproduce colonial power.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines the methodological tensions of researching coloniality from within the institutions it seeks to critique. Drawing on PhD research with international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) based in Aotearoa New Zealand, a settler-colonial context, it explores how colonial power operates not only through development practice, but through research governance, ethics, and institutional norms.

The research employed a mixed qualitative approach, including surveys, semi-structured interviews, and talanoa — a Pacific relational method of dialogue grounded in collective storytelling and listening. While these methods were intended to support critical, relational engagement, the research process was shaped by university ethics frameworks that required organisational consent prior to individual consent. This procedural ordering positioned INGOs as gatekeepers of participation, constraining relational accountability and limiting who could take part, under what conditions, and with what degree of openness.

More broadly, the research revealed resistance to methodological approaches that challenged dominant academic and sectoral norms, including expectations around neutrality, productivity, time, and acceptable forms of knowledge-making. These constraints highlight the difficulty of undertaking decolonial research while remaining embedded within universities and development organisations structured by colonial and managerial logics.

By foregrounding method as a site of power rather than a neutral technical choice, this paper contributes to debates on decolonising development research and challenging domination by the global North. It argues that intent alone is insufficient, and that greater critical attention must be paid to how institutional systems delimit the possibilities and limits of decolonial inquiry, particularly for researchers studying the sectors they inhabit.

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Decolonial vocabularies are being appropriated by authoritarian regimes to legitimise power, securitised development and majoritarian nationalism. Using India as an illustrative case, this paper theorises such appropriation as epistemic violence that delegitimises critique and reproduces domination.

Paper long abstract

Decoloniality has been primarily concerned with challenging the domination of the Global South by Eurocentric knowledge regimes and institutions in the Global North. However, decolonisation itself has become a contested terrain of power. Recent political developments reveal that decolonial vocabularies are being appropriated by right-wing and authoritarian regimes in ways that undermine their emancipatory promise. This paper conceptualises such appropriation as a form of epistemic violence, through which decolonisation is re-signified to consolidate state power, delegitimise democratic critique, and reconfigure development discourse in line with majoritarian nationalism and national security logics.

Taking India as an illustrative case, the paper examines how state and state-aligned actors mobilise decolonial terminologies to recast development as a civilisational and security imperative. Drawing on critical discourse analysis of policy narratives, political speeches, public debates, and development interventions in indigenous and forested regions, it shows how resistance to extractive development is reframed as anti-national and obstructive to national interest, particularly in debates around large-scale mining and infrastructure projects. Rather than dismantling colonial logics of domination, this paradoxical form of “decoloniality from above” empties its emancipatory potential, marginalises subaltern epistemologies, and reproduces new hierarchies of knowledge, authority, and legitimacy within the postcolonial state.

Foregrounding the politics of epistemic capture, the paper offers a reflexive complication of decolonial frameworks, demonstrating how domination can be reproduced through decolonial language within the Global South.

It argues that a genuinely decolonial development politics requires not only the rejection of Eurocentric knowledge but also the refusal of state-centred, majoritarian forms of “decolonisation”.

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The zero-sum fallacy—that a developed South costs the North—constrains global resilience. Decolonization requires lateral cooperation, not aid dependency. Using health sovereignty in Grenada as evidence, this paper shows how South-South coalitions adapt institutional strategies to reclaim agency.

Paper long abstract

The zero-sum fallacy—quietly entrenched in Northern development philosophy—misleadingly suggests that economic gains for the South come at the North's expense. This notion inverts reality: a developed South represents realized potential for addressing global existential threats, innovating futures, and bolstering collective resilience. Colonialism's wealth extraction and cultural domination deepened global divides, calcifying into neocolonialism—an insidious trap that continues to constrain Southern potential. Yet the North's dominance stems not from resource abundance (which the South possesses) but from institutional strength. As argued in Why Nations Fail, weak institutions remain the key constraint on Southern development.

In Grenada, institutional stagnation is stark: our Westminster constitution remains largely unchanged since British independence in 1974. Health systems reveal similar colonial persistence—we adopted Northern curative models unsuited to our resource realities. As Roberts et al. argue in Getting Health Reform Right, reform succeeds only when meeting population needs. Grenada's current system fails this metric. Suffocating colonial artifacts threaten health sovereignty. Sustainable reform requires transition from reactive curative care to proactive, community-based prevention aligned with Caribbean social structures.

Decolonization requires lateral cooperation, not aid dependency. The South need not reinvent institutional solutions—we must adapt proven strategies to our realities. Cuban primary care models, for instance, can be recalibrated for Caribbean contexts through regional coalitions that share knowledge and aggregate capacity. Practical mechanisms—think tanks, policy exchanges, institutional modernization—transform sovereignty from aspiration to achievement. An empowered South becomes strategic partner, not perpetual beneficiary, ensuring a multipolar, positive-sum global future.

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The presentation recalls to the Declaration on the Establishment on a New International Economic Order and its critique as of an alternative non-Western world order, representing “sedimentation” of the European empires and secures the Westernised perspective on sustainability and development.

Paper long abstract

The presentation challenges the positivist notion of a linear progression of the global community from decolonisation to a post-colonial state, and the assumption of an inevitable transition to a post-post state that overcomes both the negative effects of colonialism and the ongoing trauma of persistent inequality. In doing so, it recalls to the Declaration on the Establishment on a New International Economic Order (NIEO) and its critique as of an alternative non-Western world order; that do not seem to have withstood the resistance of the Majority World. It is argued that the European Union’s projects of assistance to the Third World and to Africa, in particular, in the name of sustainable development represent a gap between the political discourse of equality, justice and interdependence and the repetitive dwelling of decolonisation in practice. This is the process that prevents overcoming the condition of dependence, the establishment of sovereignty, and supports the idea of metropolitan supremacy over the subaltern in the form of patronage. The presentation concludes that the European Development Aid policy currently represents “sedimentation” of the European empires (Dimier, 2014) and secures the Westernised perspective on sustainability and development, and upholds the geopolitical rationale behind the current Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

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Indigenous local knowledge about climate change and interventions to manage it provide a different model of development. This paper presents how such knowledge is being used in Tanzania to address agricultural development in the context of climate change

Paper long abstract

Development is a broad term that refers to different social, economic, political and philosophical changes. It also has strong colonial roots. It presumes a particular model which groups peoples, communities and nation states into developed and less developed categories.

In this paper we look at the colonial aspects of development in Tanzania and discuss how indigenous knowledge is being used to create a different development model. An indigenous model can foster viable and sustainable development, particularly important in the face of climate change.

The colonial legacy in Tanzania disrupted agricultural development, disparaging traditional methods of sustainability and cutting off native populations from the connection to and responsibility for the land. Changes promoted by the African Centre for Biodiversity in South Africa, the Tanzanian Agricultural Research Institute at Sokoine University and the Agroecology hub in Tanzania show how indigenous and local knowledge can be promoted. The Tanzanian National climate initiative and the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) incorporate traditional and community knowledge and socio-cultural perspectives.

A particular challenge is how to engage community members at the village level. Knowing how they understand climate change and potential responses to climate change are a key part of community engagement. One of the authors has worked directly with local farmers and communities and will report on the local knowledge and perspectives of climate change and interventions that have been shared with him.

This information will be integrated with the top-side organizational initiatives to create a more complete model of development planning.

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Paper short abstract

We attempt to understand the critical process of challenging and transforming the dominance of imperialism-driven knowledge systems by recognizing, valuing and integrating indigenous, local and marginalized ways of doing, knowing, thinking, producing and democratically disseminating knowledge.

Paper long abstract

Knowledge is often legitimized in the context of the alliance between the State and market by pushing society to the margins. The dialectical relationship between the production and certification of knowledge, on the one hand, and its application and dissemination, on the other should be examined against the backdrop of the nature of the state itself, the location of the state within the matrix of a class-divided society and the relationship of the state with various contending social forces. The state is, rather, thought of as an entity that stands outside and above society, an autonomous agency that is invested with an independent source of rationality, and the capability to initiate and pursue programmes of development in a linear fashion. There is an explicit and/or implicit disjunction between the State and society, slurring over questions about the social foundations of political power and the making of public policy. The categorical imperative lies in the critical process of challenging and transforming the dominance of imperialism-driven knowledge systems by recognizing, valuing and integrating indigenous, local and marginalized ways of doing, knowing, thinking and producing knowledge that were hitherto suppressed by colonialism, aiming for epistemic justice and diverse knowledge creation and dissemination.

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From a decolonial environmental justice lens, this research analyses one of the oldest and most severe cases of oil pollution in the Peruvian Amazon, first unpacking the coloniality embedded in it and second examining transformative, holistic justice approaches to address historical injustices.

Paper long abstract

Oil Block 192 (formerly 1AB) lies in the northern Peruvian Amazon, overlapping Quechua, Achuar, and Kichwa territories. As one of Peru’s oldest and most intensively exploited oil fields, it has caused historical impacts on the environment, health, livelihoods, social organisation, culture, worldviews, and collective rights. Despite significant advances led by Indigenous organisations in the pursuit of justice that resulted in the Peruvian State assuming responsibility for the environmental remediation of longstanding contaminated sites, implementation has been delayed, and there remains no clarity on how other historical impacts will be comprehensively addressed. After more than fifty years of oil extraction, the recognition of harm, remediation processes, and the very notion of justice remain deeply contested, perpetuating violence and impunity.

From a decolonial perspective, this research examines transformative, holistic justice measures that can address the historical impacts of oil extraction within these territories. Drawing on qualitative methods such as conversations with community representatives and documentary analysis, it, first, unravels how the coloniality of power (structural and institutional violence), knowledge (epistemic violence), and being (ontological violence) are embedded in this case, reproducing fundamental forms of harm that must be addressed; and, second, explores insights for rethinking current approaches—such as purely technical environmental remediation—and envisioning transformative, holistic justice frameworks, including decolonial environmental restorative justice and reparations from a Pluriversal standpoint.

The findings aim to contribute to Indigenous communities’ ongoing struggles for justice and to challenge the colonial foundations of the Peruvian state in order to envision pluriversal and more-than-human futures.

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Paper short abstract

Localization in the Rohingya response is undermined by donor control. Despite transformative claims, donor agendas dominate, reinforcing hierarchies, limiting local agency, and producing compliant partnerships rather than genuine power redistribution or co-creation.

Paper long abstract

Recent emphasis on localisation in humanitarian discourse reflects a political-spatial process through which decisions and resources are purportedly promised to shift from the global North to local actors and become embedded within local aid practice. However, these ambitions are consistently undermined by contested meanings and competing interests among diverse stakeholders. Drawing on 20 interviews with humanitarian professionals from Bangladeshi organisations involved in the Rohingya response, secondary data and the authors’ positionality, this article uses reflexive thematic analysis to explore how localisation is enacted in practice. The Rohingya crisis in Cox’s Bazar serves as a case study where power dynamics and the politics of aid are especially pronounced in humanitarian practice.

Findings reveal that donor agendas are routinely prioritised over those of local actors. Through control of resources, donors impose terms and conditions that shape humanitarian responses and structure relationships among donors, INGOs, and local partners. We term this mechanism as donorization of the localisation, which undermines its transformative promise by reinforcing hierarchical aid structures and producing compliant rather than empowered partnerships. Donor-driven compliance requirements restrict local agencies, entrench top-down accountability, and limit meaningful participation.

Although localisation is framed as a transformative approach, in practice, it often results in docile partnerships with the donors/INGOs. This dynamic constrains genuine power redistribution and perpetuates exploitation through patron–client relationships embedded in humanitarian governance. For localisation to fulfil its potential, it must move beyond tokenistic gestures and recognise local organisations as co-creators of policy and programmatic responses, rather than mere implementers of externally defined agendas.

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Paper short abstract

IPE in Colombian IR programs lacks clear identity, often confused with international economics. Its marginal academic position and reliance on Global North theories limit contextual analysis, revealing epistemological confusion and weak integration within IR education.

Paper long abstract

This paper raises the issue of the apparent nominal equivalence between international political economy (IPE) and international economics in international curricula with a core of knowledge in political science and international relations. The reflection exposes the origin of IPE as a subfield of international relations, which, being a political economy, is not interchangeable with terms lacking the "political" element. IPE in Colombia does not appear to have a theoretical or contextual identity, which may arise from the process by which this field has made it entrance in the country's international relations programs. Thus, the objective of this paper is to situate the issue through a literature review and present a first approximation to the teaching of international political economy in Colombian international relations programs.

The structure of the text is as follows: first, difference between political economy and economics. Followed by a brief history of Colombian international relations in relation to IPE as a field of study. A brief state of the art on IPE and finally, the difference between IPE and International Economics is discussed through a proposal for further research.

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This paper links contemporary Kurdish struggles in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran to Ottoman imperial afterlives and the global partition of Kurdistan. Drawing on Ottoman, Republican, and German archives, it argues that ongoing repression, and conflict reflect enduring colonial logics.

Paper long abstract

The collapse of empires after the WWI did not yield a linear reordering of political authority. In the Middle East, imperial disintegration unfolded unevenly, often preserving imperial modes of rule within newly constituted states. Turkey represents a particularly revealing case: the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic did not dismantle imperial practices of population management, territorial control, and ethno-religious hierarchy, but reorganized them through national sovereignty, security, and development.

In this paper, I examine how these imperial afterlives shaped the governance of Kurdish regions in eastern Anatolia, focusing on the aftermath of the 1938 Dersim Tertele. Drawing on 150 exile letters written (1943-1948) by forcibly displaced Alevi Kurds, I shift attention from policy to lived political negotiation. These letters reveal displacement as a condition of uncertainty structured by the power, showing how exiles engaged the state through idioms of vulnerability and loyalty to secure recognition or return, while subtly reworking and subverting the very discourses that had rendered them governable in the first place.

I argue that the Republic extended late Ottoman strategies of demographic engineering, most violently enacted during the Armenian Genocide, into a framework that combined militarization with developmental intervention. Infrastructure projects such as resettlement schemes, policing, and boarding schools were not ancillary to state violence; they were central to the reordering of territory and population. By situating Dersim as a central node in the imperial-to-nation-state transition, I rethink vulnerability as a historically contingent terrain where power and agency were negotiated within unequal systems.

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DRM has emerged as a critical pillar for advancing Financial stability, economic resilience and sustainable development across Africa. As external financing sources become increasingly uncertain & volatile, African countries are unfavorably compelled to meet the demands of their development agendas.

Paper long abstract

Enhanced DRM has emerged as a critical pillar for advancing financial stability, economic resilience, and sustainable development across Africa. As external financing sources become increasingly uncertain and volatile, African countries are compelled to leverage internal fiscal capacities to meet the growing demands of their development agendas, particularly in achieving the SDGs and Agenda 2063. This paper explores the strategic importance of DRM as a sustainable pathway to reducing fiscal dependence, expanding development financing, and fostering inclusive growth across the continent.

Despite the potential of DRM, Africa continues to face significant structural and institutional challenges. Weak tax administration systems, limited digital infrastructure, and corruption hinder effective revenue collection. The continent's average tax-to-GDP ratio remains among the lowest globally. Compounding the DRM constraints are Africa’s limited access to external finances, driven largely by unfavorable sovereign credit ratings and perceived investment risks. International credit rating agencies frequently assign disproportionately low ratings to African economies, often based on narrow metrics and external vulnerabilities rather than domestic policy efforts or development potential.

The paper argues for a multidimensional DRM framework anchored on policy coherence, institutional strengthening, and regional cooperation. Key recommendations include broadening the tax base through digital tax systems and formalization of informal enterprises, curbing illicit financial flows and promoting progressive tax reforms. Furthermore, efforts must be directed at reforming global credit rating systems to reflect African realities more fairly, improving public financial transparency to attract long-term FDI, and leveraging regional financial institutions to pool resources.