Third World elites weaponized Western ideals of sovereignty and equality against the West

Evidence

Lal interpreted the South’s aggressive posture in its confrontation with the North as an attempt by developing country elites to mobilize Western ideas (specifically national self-determination and equality) in pursuit of their own ends: “the elites of the Third World remain conscious of their country’s vulnerability to any determined exercise of Western military power, and also of the potential threat to their positions vis-à-vis their subjects through subversion by the West. The fear that Western economic power, expressed through transnational corporations, could be used to exert pressure through economic destabilization to sow discontent between the rulers and the ruled, continues to be a serious worry for Third World leaders. Hence their strident calls for respect for national sovereignty and codes of conduct for multinationals” (Lal 1978, 7). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1777

Categorization

• XREF: Inverts the standard postcolonial reading of the NIEO as genuine anti-imperialism — parallels the cynical-elite analysis found in the rhetoric-as-ideology literature and in James C. Scott’s critique of high modernism. — connects to: Bandung united half the world’s population against colonialism — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 275; Repudiating Marxism reframed global power as a West-non-West relation of nations rather than classes — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 70; Non-Western peoples read Western universalism as imperialism and threat (+1 more)
• STORYSTEM: The image of ruling elites manufacturing ideological confrontation as cover for regime insecurity is a strong engine for political fiction — a leader whose nationalist posturing is really fear of subversion by outside capital.

Broader Connections

• Repudiating Marxism reframed global power as a West-non-West relation of nations rather than classes #qualifies (0.78) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 70
• Radical white ideology offers colonized elites equality with their oppressors #complicates (0.75)
• Non-Western peoples read Western universalism as imperialism and threat #qualifies (0.72)