The Bounds of 'Race' in International Relations

Two sets of observations motivate the concerns expressed in this chapter. The first involves the increasingly widespread incidents worldwide with racial overtones which have occurred in recent years. I will mention just a few. In 1988, in part due to the rapidly increasing ‘Third World’ immigrant population and the ensuing violence against them, racism became a national issue in Italy. In June 1991, the Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, suggested that French workingmen had had an overdose of polygamous North African welfare scroungers. In September 1992, former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing suggested that the country was facing an invasion of dark-skinned immigrants and suggested that the ‘right of blood’ be instilled into citizenship legislation. Conservative figures reported to Britain’s Home Office suggest that there were 7780 racially motivated attacks in 1992. Meanwhile, special committees of the European Parliament have twice looked at the increase in racist and xenophobic activity throughout Europe and concluded that it is getting worse.2 In May 1992, riots in south central Los Angeles provided the world with a stark and painful reminder that race remains a salient issue in the United States.