A simple guide to colonialism in the 21st century.

• Countries A, B and C want to dominate the world’s resources and labour. Country D wishes to develop independently. Irreconcilable contradiction. 
• A, B and C have money, weapons, media and experience. They might for example stir up conflict between D and E in order to weaken and destabilise D. 
• They will almost certainly sponsor unrest within D, sending money and offering training to groups that are favourable to A-B-C aims.
• They might apply economic sanctions against D, the effect of which would be to weaken it and to encourage discontent among its population.
• Like anywhere else, D is a complex country with its own problems and contradictions. A, B and C will find a way to exploit these. 
• A, B and C have the clout to ask the ‘international’ financial institutions to apply loan conditions of privatisation and deregulation.
• Unemployment, rising prices, increasing inequality will help a lot should A, B and C decide to take things to the next level.
• Just as social unrest is kicking off in D due to years of neoliberal reform, A, B and C find a way to get weapons to opposition groups.
• The destabilisation is backed by a wide-ranging campaign of criminalisation, demonisation and character assassination of D’s leaders.
• Naturally, D’s government isn’t going to sit back and be overthrown. So it comes down hard on the attempts to destabilise/overthrow it. 
• A, B and C now cry out about D’s human rights abuses. Suddenly well-meaning people everywhere are calling for D’s government to be taken out. 
• Having ensured an absolute minimum of resistance at home, A, B and C go to war to topple D and establish a client state (that recognises I).
• Human rights abuses in D increase massively under an unpopular, incompetent, kleptocratic administration. But they go largely unreported. 
• D goes from being relatively affluent to being a failed state. It sees starvation, illiteracy and sectarian killings for the first time in decades.
• Next year, A, B and C will use the same strategy against E and F. By then, everyone will have forgotten the lessons of D.