An EU-topia in Cambodia post 2017EBA: A post-colonial critique of Europe’s “stick” in the Global South

What kind of power did the EU exert? In a word, neo-colonial. After the 2017 democratic deterioration in Cambodia, trade sanctions under the Everything But Arms (EBA) had a negative impact in terms of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. To examine this case, we start to discuss the EU as a promoter of universal principles with the concept of Normative Power Europe (NPE). Then, we empirically confirm the hypothesis of Neo-Colonial Power Europe, before we conceptualise Humble Power Europe, which is a suggestion to ‘normalise’ the EU.

Economically, the EU committed a capitalist injustice under the guise of “human rights.” Politically, power politics produced polarisation, rather than democratisation. Geopolitically, strategies were hidden behind the “West’s democratic” façade. Our case is one of Eurocentric hypocrisy. EU officials were claiming concerns for “democracy,” when they imposed a tax on garment exports. Historically, French colonialists claimed to bring “civilisation,” when they were exploiting labour and resources.

Our case contributes to research on NPE and, its underacknowledged neo-coloniality, confirming the explanatory power of post-colonialism. A Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) ‘decentres’ the EU and ‘centres’ the poor, shifting attention from the “white man” to the “indigenous woman,” from the “norm-makers” to the “norm-takers,” or from the source to the recipient of power.

Beyond EU neo-colonialism, we expose US hegemony, China imperialism, CPP hegemony, corporate and local abuses, which resulted in a multi-layered and omni-directional oppression. Thus, our conception of ‘humility’ as an alternative power incorporates human rights into the equation of anti-colonialism.