The diplomacy of decolonisation: America, Britain and the United Nations during the Congo crisis 1960-1964 (Key Studies in Diplomacy) - Hardcover

O'Malley, Alanna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 152611626X ISBN 13: 9781526116260

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2018

Synopsis

The book reinterprets the role of the UN during the Congo crisis from 1960 to 1964, presenting a multidimensional view of the organisation. Through an examination of the Anglo-American relationship, the book reveals how the UN helped position this event as a lightning rod in debates about how decolonisation interacted with the Cold War. By examining the ways in which the various dimensions of the UN came into play in Anglo-American considerations of how to handle the Congo crisis, the book reveals how the Congo debate reverberated in wider ideological struggles about how decolonisation evolved and what the role of the UN would be in managing this process. The UN became a central battle ground for ideas and visions of world order; as the newly-independent African and Asian states sought to redress the inequalities created by colonialism, the US and UK sought to maintain the status quo, while the Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld tried to reconcile these two contrasting views.

About this title

About the Author

Alanna O'Malley is a Professor of United Nations Studies in Peace and Justice at Leiden University

From the Back Cover

The Congo Crisis of 1960-64 exploded tensions between newly independent countries and their former colonisers and changed the way America, Britain and the UN approached the process of decolonisation.
Often seen as a Cold War proxy conflict, Alanna O’Malley demonstrates that the Crisis was in fact a multi-dimensional confrontation demonstrating the potential of and the limitations to UN agency and Afro-Asian solidarity.


The UN mission became a battleground for competing ideas and visions of the world order as newly independent African and Asian states sought to redress the inequalities created by colonialism, the US and UK sought to maintain the status quo, and UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld tried to reconcile these two contrasting views, before dying in a plane crash in 1961.


Lucid, deeply researched and vividly written, this book shows how attempts to direct the UN mission led to the creation of permanent mechanisms at the UN through which the Afro-Asian bloc shaped the course and the pace of decolonisation and gave new impetus to a Third World critique of imperial internationalism.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 152611626X
• ISBN 13: 9781526116260
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224