Critical Geopolitics of Decolonization: The Indonesian Question at the United Nations Security Council, 1947

Absztrakt

Between 31 July and 25 August 1947, the United Nations Security Council debated the Dutch “police action” in Indonesia – the first major armed confrontation between the Netherlands and the Republic of Indonesia since its 1945 declaration of independence. The outbreak of hostilities prompted Australia and India to bring the issue to the UNSC, framing it as both a threat to international peace and a matter of decolonization and self-determination. Drawing primarily on Ó Tuathail’s framework of critical geopolitics, this paper analyzes the debate as a set of discursive performances and geopolitical scripts that produced and contested geopolitical meaning in the early postwar order. Through close textual analysis of official meeting records and adopted resolutions, the study focuses on how the representatives of the Netherlands, Australia, and India articulated competing visions of world order and claims to legitimacy. By situating these historical debates within broader patterns of North–South relations and the construction of state authority, the study highlights how early postwar discourses continue to inform contemporary understandings of global power, legitimacy, and the role of critical geopolitical narratives in shaping international relations.