In Empire's Violent End, Thijs Brocades Zaalberg and Bart Luttikhuis, along with expert contributors, present comparative research focused specifically on excessive violence in Indonesia, Algeria,...Show moreIn Empire's Violent End, Thijs Brocades Zaalberg and Bart Luttikhuis, along with expert contributors, present comparative research focused specifically on excessive violence in Indonesia, Algeria, Vietnam, Malaysia, Kenya, and other areas during the wars of decolonization. In the last two decades, there have been heated public and scholarly debates in France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands on the violent end of empire. Nevertheless, the broader comparative investigations into colonial counterinsurgency tend to leave atrocities such as torture, execution, and rape in the margins. The editors describe how such comparisons mostly focus on the differences by engaging in "guilt ranking." Moreover, the dramas that have unfolded in Algeria and Kenya tend to overshadow similar violent events in Indonesia, the very first nation to declare independence directly after World War II.Empire's Violent End is the first book to place the Dutch-Indonesian case at the heart of a comparison with focused, thematic analysis on a diverse range of topics to demonstrate that despite variation in scale, combat intensity, and international dynamics, there were more similarities than differences in the ways colonial powers used extreme forms of violence. By delving into the causes and nature of the abuse, Brocades Zaalberg and Luttikhuis conclude that all cases involved some form of institutionalized impunity, which enabled the type of situation in which the forces in the service of the colonial rulers were able to use extreme violence. Show less
Historische vergelijkingen kunnen ons helpen koloniale oorlogen beter te begrijpen. Ze stellen ons ook in staat vormen van extreem geweld die Nederlandse, Britse, Franse en andere troepen tijdens... Show moreHistorische vergelijkingen kunnen ons helpen koloniale oorlogen beter te begrijpen. Ze stellen ons ook in staat vormen van extreem geweld die Nederlandse, Britse, Franse en andere troepen tijdens de naoorlogse dekolonisatiegolf toepasten beter te verklaren. Grondig comparatief onderzoek naar buitensporig geweld in oorlogen als die in Vietnam, Algerije, Maleisië en Kenia is echter zelden verricht, en de casus Indonesië is daarbij, tot nu toe, al helemaal nauwelijks betrokken. Om die reden is in het voorjaar van 2019 een team van internationale en Nederlandse onderzoekers bijeengebracht op het Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS), met het doel in deze lacune te voorzien. De onderzoekers werkten aan gerichte vergelijkingen op thema’s als de politieke omgang met schandalen rondom extreem geweld, de inzet van zware wapens, seksueel geweld en de microdynamiek van geweld. De bredere vergelijkende context namen wij als projectleiders voor onze rekening. In dit hoofdstuk bespreken wij de belangrijkste bevindingen van het onderzoek. Show less
Dit artikel analyseert de verschillende aspecten van het militair optreden van een Nederlandse pelotonscommandant op Java tijdens de Indonesische onafhankelijkheidsstrijd aan de hand van zijn... Show moreDit artikel analyseert de verschillende aspecten van het militair optreden van een Nederlandse pelotonscommandant op Java tijdens de Indonesische onafhankelijkheidsstrijd aan de hand van zijn persoonlijke dagboek. Het onderzoek wordt aangevuld en vergeleken met gegevens en inzichten uit zijn latere memoires en een interview, dat de auteur met de inmiddels overleden voormalig officier voerde. Show less
In the last decade, a heated public debate broke out in the Netherlands about the extreme violence that Dutch security forces perpetrated in Indonesia between 1945 and 1949. Similar discussions... Show moreIn the last decade, a heated public debate broke out in the Netherlands about the extreme violence that Dutch security forces perpetrated in Indonesia between 1945 and 1949. Similar discussions cropped up in France and the United Kingdom. Exhaustive comparative research into excessive violence in Indonesia, Algeria, Indochina, Malaysia, Kenya and other places during the decolonisation wars has nevertheless only been sporadic. This forum is based on the initial findings of a recent research project and a conference that explored the options for more targeted comparative research. The provisional results that we share here demonstrate that although the armed conflicts strongly differed from each other, there were more similarities than differences in the ways in which extreme violence was used in them and the explanation for it. We conclude that all cases involved some form of institutionalised impunity, which enabled the type of situation in which the forces in the service of the colonial rulers were able to use extreme violence. Show less
Only a decade ago, the idea of a comprehensive approach that combines military, political and socio-economic instruments of power in stabilization operations, counter-insurgency and state-building... Show moreOnly a decade ago, the idea of a comprehensive approach that combines military, political and socio-economic instruments of power in stabilization operations, counter-insurgency and state-building held great promise. The approach also became intricately linked to the ideal liberal state-building. However, following the withdrawal of large scale military contingents from Afghanistan and Iraq and the meagre results of these massive combined civil-military efforts, enthusiasm in the Western world for what critics have also called ‘armed state-building’ seems to have sunk to an all-time low. Treating the comprehensive approach in a broader historical context, this paper analyses the roots, the rise and early signs of its demise. It will argue that while it is justified to question many of the assumptions underlying the recent idealistic interpretations of the comprehensive approach, run the risk of throwing out the baby with the bathwater if we do not continue to build on past mistakes, thereby shaking of the naivety of the post-9/11 era. Show less
Despite its seemingly overwhelming military superiority, theNetherlands never came close to defeating the increasingly effectivenationalist insurgency on Java in the late 1940s. This article argues... Show moreDespite its seemingly overwhelming military superiority, theNetherlands never came close to defeating the increasingly effectivenationalist insurgency on Java in the late 1940s. This article argues that thedesperate state of the Dutch counter-insurgency campaign—which tends to beoverlooked for the crucial years 1947-1948—is best demonstrated by focussing onthe failure of the colonial power to integrate the civilian and militaryefforts and on its inability to govern reoccupied territory during the ‘pacificationphase’. Show less
Peace operations became the core focus of many Western armed forces after the Cold War. The wish amongst political and military leaders during the 1990s to hold on to the classical identity of the... Show morePeace operations became the core focus of many Western armed forces after the Cold War. The wish amongst political and military leaders during the 1990s to hold on to the classical identity of the armed forces as an instrument of force made them pursue a strict separation between military operations and the civilian aspects of peacekeeping, such as policing, administrative functions, and political and societal reconstruction. In his book Soldiers and Civil Power, Thijs Brocades Zaalberg argues that this policy failed to match up to reality. Supporting civil authorities, and at times even substituting them (de facto military governance), became the key to reaching any level of success in Cambodia, Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo. As a result of the false segregation between the civilian and the military domain, this was accomplished mostly by improvisation and creativity of commanders who probed for the limiting boundaries of their original mandate by reaching ever further into the civilian sphere. Show less
The authors of this book challenge the view that was current among many people in the Netherlands during the period 1945-1949 that the American government and its foreign policymakers unequivocally... Show moreThe authors of this book challenge the view that was current among many people in the Netherlands during the period 1945-1949 that the American government and its foreign policymakers unequivocally backed the Indonesian Republic's struggle for independence. The same myth of America's political endorsement of Indonesians' quest for independence continues to reverberate in the United States itself. In fact, ex-President Clinton repeated the story as recently as 1995 when he wrote to ex-President Suharto that in the post-World War II era, President Truman and the U.S. Congress had actively supported Indonesia 'as the nation was being born'. On the basis of research in American, Indonesian, Dutch, and Australian diplomatic records and in the archives of the United Nations, Gouda and Brocades Zaalberg describe and analyze American visions of the Dutch East Indies/Indonesia from the 1920s to December 1949, when the Kingdom of the Netherlands relinquished its sovereignty over the archipelago in southeast Asia to the United States fo Indonesia. Their historical analysis suggests that the American diplomatic establishment was not as ignorant of conditions in the Indonesian archipelago as many Dutch people assumed, both before and after World War II. They also chronicle the unfolding of America's steady but tactic backing of its faithful Dutch ally in northern Europe until early 1949, when U.S. assessments of the regions in the world where the Cold War might ignite into a 'Hot War' began to incorporate the anti-colonial, nationalist struggles in Indonesia and Vietnam. Show less
