Re-thinking agents of empire: The role of the United Nations in the Indonesian occupation of West Papua

Abstract

The years post-World War II were not necessarily a period of independence for everyone. This is especially the case for a number of Pacific locales, West Papua in particular, wherein one colonial power seems to have merely been switched for another. What is more, this takeover was done with the connivance of the United Nations (UN), a non-state agency which, following World War II, was designed to maintain the peace. By way of the 1969 UN-brokered Act of Free Choice, the peoples of this former Dutch colony were instead subjected to an invading Indonesian military and colonial culture. This work, whilst not only drawing attention to an under-discussed process of recolonization in the Pacific, focuses upon another, albeit overlooked method by which empires can be created, namely by way of a non-state agency. In doing so it critiques theories of empire that concentrate primarily upon large state-led entities characterized by physical conquest. Whilst it is true that big state-led powers with vast military forces bent on conquering other sovereign states are the most easily discernible of empires, we argue that this is only one type and that colonialism needs to be differentiated. We suggest that other actors, including non-state players such as private companies, religious organizations, filibusters and now, as emphasized here, international/inter-governmental organizations, should be scrutinized too.