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Diplomacy As Theatre: Staging the Bandung Conference of 1955*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2013

NAOKO SHIMAZU*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Classics and Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London, UK Email: n.shimazu@bbk.ac.uk

Abstract

As a significant ‘moment’ in twentieth-century international diplomacy, the rise of post-colonial Afro-Asia at the Bandung Conference of 1955 is replete with symbolic meanings. This paper proposes a conceptual approach to understanding the symbolic dimension of international diplomacy, and does so by ruminating on the newly unearthed Indonesian material on the Bandung Conference. To this end, ‘diplomacy as theatre’ is introduced as an interpretive framework to re-cast the conference as a theatrical performance, in which actors performed on the stage to audiences. Focusing on the city of Bandung, this paper reconstructs some examples of the ‘performative’ dimensions of international diplomacy, and elaborates on the notion of ‘staging’ the city and the role played by the people of Bandung, including the significance of conference venues, as well as the impromptu creation of a ritual citation that contributed to an iconic ‘performative act’ during the conference. Sukarno, Nehru, Zhou Enlai and Nasser all understood the importance as performers in their role as new international statesmen, representing the esprit de corps of the newly emergent post-colonial world. In deconstructing the symbolic, it will become evident that the role played by Indonesia significantly influenced the underlying script of the diplomatic theatre which unfolded at Bandung.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

*

I would like to express my gratitude to the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore for hosting me, to the ISEAS Library in Singapore, and to the British Academy Research Development Award for the generous financial support to launch this new research project. Many helpful comments were received at research seminars given in Singapore, Yogyakarta, Hong Kong, Zurich, Cambridge, and London. Last but not least, special thanks are due to Sunil Amrith.

References

1 Official invitations were accepted by Afghanistan, Burma, Cambodia, Ceylon, China (People's Republic), Egypt, Ethiopia, the Gold Coast, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and Yemen.

2 See, for example, the official Indonesian celebrations surrounding the fiftieth anniversary of the Asia-Africa Conference in 2005, Department of Foreign Affairs, Asia Africa: Towards the First Century, Department of Foreign Affairs, Jakarta, 2005.

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33 Abdulgani, Bandung Connection, pp. 44–47.

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35 BERITA Konferensi Asia Afrika, p. 91. One of the few writings in English on the city of Bandung can be found in Chapter 1 of Smail, John R. W.'s Bandung in the Early Revolution, 1945–1946: A Study in the Social History of the Indonesian Revolution, Modern Indonesia Project, Cornell University, Ithaca, 1964Google Scholar.

36 Federspiel, Howard M., Islam and Ideology in the Emerging Indonesian State: The Persatuan Islam (PERSIS), 1923 to 1957, Brill, Leiden, 2001, pp. 200201, 235, 237Google Scholar. My thanks are due to Chiara Formichi for helpful discussions on Indonesian political history.

37 Pikiran rakjat, 16 April 1955.

38 Ibid., 12 April 1955.

39 Ibid., 2 April 1955.

42 Star Weekly, no. 486, 23 April 1955.

43 Ibid., 18 April 1955.

44 BERITA, pp. 25–26.

45 Star Weekly, no. 486, 23 April 1955.

46 According to the visual materials shown by Jürgen Dinkel at ‘The Cold War and the Postcolonial Moment: Prehistory, Aims and Achievements of the Non-Aligned Movement 50 Years after Belgrade’, held jointly at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) and the University of Zurich, 3–4 June 2011.

47 Pikiran rakjat, 9 April 1955; Indonesian Observer, 15 April 1955.

48 Indonesian Observer, 15 April 1955.

49 Abdulgani, Bandung Connection, p. 68.

50 Pikiran rakjat, 10 April 1955.

51 See the pamphlet, ‘Museum of the Asian-African Conference’, Directorate of Public Diplomacy, Department of Foreign Affairs, Jakarta, 2007.

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56 Lukisan Dunia, no. 17, year 3, 28 April 1955.

57 Pikiran rakjat, 19 April 1955.

58 Star Weekly, no. 486, 23 April 1955.

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67 Wanita, no. 9, year 7, 5 May 1955.

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69 ‘Nasser on Social Justice,’ From Amembassy (Cairo) to the Department of State, 1 June 1955, RG59, Central Decimal Files, 1955–1959, Box 3681, National Archives and Record Administration (NARA), College Park, Maryland, USA; see also, ‘Domestic Scene Characterized by Indecision and Inactivity,’ Amembassy (Cairo) to Department of State, 7 October 1955, RG 59, Central Decimal Files, 1955–1959, Box 3681, NARA.

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76 Sukarno was a constitutional president under constitutional democracy at the time of the conference. Legge, Sukarno, pp. 262, 275.

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83 Ibid., p. 358.

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