The New World Order and the Unmasking of the Neo-Colonial Present

Abstract

In his dramatic sketch The New World Order Pinter exposes practices of psychological and physical abuse targeted at local people who resist neo-colonial advancements in territories directly occupied or indirectly controlled by Western hegemonic powers. Through the deployment of Pinteresque double-layered meanings conveyed through seemingly ordinary, everyday language, the drama unveils the ideological premises and operating principles of neo-colonial discourse. The paper discusses the way Pinter blasts apart a seemingly neutral Western rhetoric of humanitarian militarism, focusing on the discursive strategies by means of which neo-imperial violence, torture and massive dispossession of local populations are justified and naturalized.