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The ‘glass palace war’ over the international decolonization of South West Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Richard Dale
Richard Dale
Affiliation:
Richard Dale is an associate professor of political science at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
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Type
Review Essays
Information
International Organization , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , Spring 1975 , pp. 535 - 544
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1975

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References

1 Stegenga, James A., “On Book Reviews,” P.S. 4 (Spring 1971), pp. 145–46Google Scholar. Equally insightful is a scintillating essay on the relationship between the reviewer and the publisher. See Kluger, Richard, “Such Good Friends?,” American Libraries 4 (01 1973), pp. 20–25.Google Scholar

2 Stegenga, p. 146.

3 The phrase the glass palace war is found in Morris, Michael, Terrorism: The First Full Account in Detail of Terrorism and Insurgency in Southern Africa (Cape Town: Howard Timmins, 1971), p. 99Google Scholar. Prime Minister Vorster, in a speech at Rustenburg, South Africa, on October 14, 1967, referred to “the glass palace of [the] UNO.” Extracts of that speech are printed in Morris, p. 137. I have chosen to employ this phrase as a point of departure for the analysis that follows, but I do not necessarily share the views of the prime minister, or Mr. Morris for that matter.

4 Details of Professor Slonim's career were provided to me in a letter dated August 6, 1973 from Miss Suzanne Ford of The Johns Hopkins University Press. There is no dust cover for the book, which customarily carries this information, nor is the author's current position stated on the title page.

5 The other work is Carroll, Faye, South West Africa & The United Nations (Lexington, Ky.: University of Kentucky Press, 1967)Google Scholar, a revision of the author's “South West Africa in the United Nations” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kentucky, 1963).Google Scholar

6 Louis, William Roger, Great Britain and Germany's Lost Colonies 1914–1919 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967).Google Scholar

7 For a recent analysis, consult Kay, David A., “The United Nations and Decolonization,” in Barros, James, ed., The United Nations: Past, Present, and Future (New York: The Free Press, 1972), pp. 143–70Google Scholar. Professor Slonim has taken the position that “the role of the United Nations in the general process of decolonization has been a minor one” (p. 361). There seems to be some evidence to support such a thesis in the case of the United Kingdom which was the paramount power in Southern Africa. See Lee, J. M., Colonial Development and Good Government: A Study of the Ideas Expressed by the British Official Classes in Planning Decolonization, 1939–1964 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967), p. 193.Google Scholar

8 Consult Michalak, Stanley J. Jr, “The United Nations and the League,” in Gordenker, Leon, ed., The United Nations in International Politics (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971), pp. 60–105Google Scholar; and Meyer, David, “The United Nations and the League of Nations: Actors or Instruments,” The Journal of International and Comparative Studies 4 (Summer 1971), pp. 56–78.Google Scholar

9 I have deliberately used this dichotomy in order to avoid getting tangled in the epistemological morass involving the meaning and applicability of science to international relations research, a subject adequately explored in Knorr, Klaus and Rosenau, James N., eds., Contending Approaches to International Politics (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969).Google Scholar

10 For an erudite analysis of this matter, see Henderson, W. O., Studies in German Colonial History (London: Frank Cass & Co., 1962), especially chapter 3.Google Scholar

11 For a recent appraisal of the economy, consult “Desert Deadlock,” a supplement to The Financial Mail (Johannesburg), 03 2, 1973.Google ScholarPubMed

12 See, for example, Wallenkampf, Arnold V., “The Herero Rebellion in South West Africa, 1904–1906: A Study in German Colonialism” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, 1969)Google Scholar. Professor Dugard does cite one of the finest pieces of recent historical research on the territory, namely, Bley, Helmut, South West Africa under German Rule, 1884–1914 (London: Heinemann, 1971), in both the bibliography (p. 545)Google Scholar and the appropriate footnotes (on pp. 22, 25, 26), but he does not use extracts from this study.

13 For an account of the history of the territory from the perspective of committed African nationalists from Namibia, see Hamutena, Hidipo L. and Geingob, Gottfried H., “African Nationalism in Namibia,” in Potholm, Christian P. and Dale, Richard, eds., Southern Africa in Perspective: Essays in Regional Politics (New York: The Free Press, 1972), pp. 85–94Google Scholar. Equally insightful is a recent novel written by a white South African writer who attempts to cross the racial and cultural gap and to perceive at least some of the history of the territory from a nonwhite, as well as a white, point of view, namely, Brown, James Ambrose, The Return (Cape Town: Purnell, 1971).Google ScholarPubMed

14 Undoubtedly the best supplement to Professor Wright's treatise is still Robert Bradford, L., “The Origin and Concession of the League of Nations' Class ‘C’ Mandate for South West Africa and Fulfillment of the Sacred Trust, 1919–1939” (Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1965)Google Scholar, especially parts 2–4. On the matter of the retrocession of the German colonies, see Schmokel, Wolfe W., Dream of Empire: German Colonialism 1919–1945 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1964)Google Scholar. See also Stuebel, Heinrich, “Die Entwicklung des Nationalsozialismus in Südwestafrika,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 1 (04 1953), pp. 170–76.Google Scholar

15 This bitterness, although muted, can still be seen in the displays in the museum in Swakopmund and in the Old Fort in Windhoek, which I visited in July 1970. Documentary evidence can be found, of course, in a close reading of the Debates of the House of Assembly, especially those in the 1945–50 period when the National party was jockeying for support among embittered Afrikaners and German internees in South West Africa.

16 For a fuller exposition, consult Auala, Bishop Leonard N., “The Ovambo: Our Problems and Hopes,” Munger Africana Library Notes 3 (02 1973), pp. 11–32.Google Scholar

17 See Dale, Richard, “Southern Africa: Research Frontiers in Political Science,” in Potholm and Dale, pp. 3–15.Google Scholar

18 Consult Heussler, Robert, Yesterday's Rulers: The Making of the British Colonial Service (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1963)Google Scholar; and Cohen, William B., Rulers of Empire: The French Colonial Service in Africa (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution [of Stanford University] Press, 1971).Google Scholar

19 The only study that I have been able to locate so far is over 40 years old. See Samuel Myers, D. Jr, “The Permanent Mandates Commission: A Study in International Administration” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 1929)Google Scholar. I am also not aware that the Mandates Section of the League Secretariat has been analyzed in any depth. With the greater accessibility of the League archives (in Geneva), this study could probably be undertaken now.

20 Rothstein, Robert L., Planning, Prediction, and Policymaking in Foreign Affairs: Theory and Practice (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1972), p. 70.Google Scholar

21 At the general level, see Keohane, Robert O. and Nye, Joseph S. Jr, eds., Transnational Relations and World Politics (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Modelski, George, ed., “Multinational Corporations and World Order,” International Studies Quarterly 16 (12 1972)Google Scholar, entire issue. At the particular level, see US Congress, House, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa, US Business Involvement in South Africa: Hearings (3 parts). 92d Cong., 1st sess., and 93d Cong., 1st sess., 1972–73, and Critical Developments in Namibia: Hearings. 93d Cong., 2d sess., 1974.

22 See the various essays in Shepherd, George W. Jr and LeMelle, Tilden J., eds., Race among Nations: A Conceptual Approach (Lexington, Mass.: Heath Lexington Books, D.C. Heath & Co., 1970).Google Scholar

23 Three most recent studies that are germane to these matters are Bowman, Larry W., Politics in Rhodesia: White Power in an African State (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hyam, Ronald, The Failure of South African Expansion, 1908–1948 (London: Macmillan, 1972)Google Scholar; and Barber, James, South Africa's Foreign Policy, 1945–1970 (London: Oxford University Press, 1973).Google Scholar

24 See North, Robert C., “Research Pluralism and the International Elephant,” in Knorr and Rosenau, pp. 218–42.Google Scholar