Fire and the Full Moon: Canada and Indonesia in a Decolonizing World

by David Webster

Overview

Our image of Canada’s postwar foreign policy is dominated by the Cold War, while the story of Canada’s response to decolonization in the Global South is less well known. This book explores Canadian-Indonesian relations to determine whether Canada’s postwar foreign policy was guided by an overarching set of altruistic principles. It shows that Canada remained a loyal member of the Western alliance. Canada wanted developing countries to follow its own non-revolutionary model of decolonization and paid little attention to violations of human rights. Webster’s reassessment of Canada’s foreign-policy objectives in Indonesia, and of its own national image, will appeal to students of diplomatic history interested in Asia and the developing world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780774816830
Publisher:	University of British Columbia Press
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Canada, the United Nations, and the Decolonization of Indonesia, 1945–49

2 The Golden Bridge: Canada and Indonesian Economic Development, 1950–63

3 Non-state Networks and Modernizing Elites in the Sukarno Years

4 Canada, Alliance Politics, and the West New Guinea Dispute, 1957–63

5 Canada, Confrontation, and the End of Empire in Southeast Asia, 1963–66

6 A Pebble in Many Shoes: Development in Indonesia, Decolonization in East Timor, 1968–99

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

What People are Saying About This

Jaques Bertrand

Webster's detailed analysis of the perspectives of Canada's foreign policymakers and politicians on Indonesia, and Asia more genrally, fomrs thefascinating core of this book. Fire and the Full Moon is about the disjuncture (intended or not) between the rhetoric and self—image of Canada's foreign policy—makers and the reality of their actions. This is first—rate scholarship.

From the Publisher

"Fire and the Full Moon is a most welcome addition to the literature of Canadian foreign policy. Strikingly well written and deeply researched, the book explores an area that Canadian diplomats often ignored or took for granted—- relations with Indonesia, one of the largest countries in Asia, and, in the 1960s especially, the epicentre of the Cold War in Asia. Webster expands our understanding of Canadian foreign relations in the twentieth century and reminds us of the importance of the Third World in the definition of Canadian policy abroad."—Robert Bothwell, author of Alliance and Illusion: Canada and the World, 1945—1984

"Webster's detailed analysis of the perspectives of Canada's foreign policymakers and politicians on Indonesia, and Asia more genrally, fomrs thefascinating core of this book. Fire and the Full Moon is about the disjuncture (intended or not) between the rhetoric and self—image of Canada's foreign policy—makers and the reality of their actions. This is first—rate scholarship."—Jaques Bertrand, author of Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia

Robert Bothwell

Fire and the Full Moon is a most welcome addition to the literature of Canadian foreign policy. Strikingly well written and deeply researched, the book explores an area that Canadian diplomats often ignored or took for granted—- relations with Indonesia, one of the largest countries in Asia, and, in the 1960s especially, the epicentre of the Cold War in Asia. Webster expands our understanding of Canadian foreign relations in the twentieth century and reminds us of the importance of the Third World in the definition of Canadian policy abroad.