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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2021
This article examines a formative episode in the history of both the United Nations Security Council and Indonesian decolonisation. In August of 1947, Council members authorised an ad hoc delegation from the Republic of Indonesia to participate in its discussions concerning the ongoing Dutch–Indonesian conflict. Focusing on the series of developments that led to the Indonesians taking their seats at the table, this article reveals how Security Council procedures and practices could be used to facilitate the decolonisation process. The Council's involvement in the Dutch–Indonesian conflict—and, in particular, the decision to allow the Indonesians to present their case in this international arena—demonstrates that Europeans’ claims of “domestic jurisdiction” over their colonial territories remained subject to negotiation, and that non-European actors could successfully contest these claims in Council chambers.
Jennifer L. Foray is Associate Professor of History at Purdue University. Her publications include Visions of Empire in the Nazi-Occupied Netherlands (Cambridge, 2012) and numerous articles focusing on imperialism, Nazism, and decolonisation. Her current book project examines those groups and individuals who opposed the Dutch–Indonesian decolonisation conflict of 1945–1949.