Vincent Kuitenbrouwer

Beyond the ‘Trauma of Decolonisation’: Dutch Cultural Diplomacy during the West New Guinea Question (1950–62)

ABSTRACT This article opens up new perspectives on the dispute between the Netherlands and Indonesia about West New Guinea between 1950 and 1962. Conventional historiography describes this episode as the ‘trauma of decolonisation’, with Dutch policy-makers clinging on to the last bits of their overseas empire in Southeast Asia. This article shows that some of them also attempted to formulate new principles to convince world opinion that their country was making a break from traditional forms of colonialism. Referring to Article 73 of the United Nations’ Charter, the Dutch government put the well-being of the local Papuan population at the centre of their policy and several key officials embarked on an international publicity campaign to propagate this policy. The imagery of this campaign was ambivalent in the sense that it showed both continuities and discontinuities with the colonial discourse, but nonetheless it appealed to various delegates in the United Nations, including some from newly independent nations in Africa. As such the following analysis of the international aspects of the Dutch policy on West New Guinea also contributes to the general debate on decolonisation by revealing its complex dynamics.

Radio as a Tool of Empire: Intercontinental Broadcasting from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies in the 1920s and 1930s

In the interwar years, the colonial powers of the day instantly saw long-range radio technology as an instrument to strengthen their empires as it enabled broadcasters in the European metropoles to reach audiences in the peripheries via the ether. This article focuses on the Dutch colonial station PHOHI, a company that pioneered global radio broadcasting. The station was founded by a group of influential entrepreneurs in order to strengthen ties between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies by reaching out to colonial expatriates. This case study shows how geopolitical and ideological considerations shaped both the organisation and the content of Dutch intercontinental broadcasting.