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America, the UN and Decolonisation

Cold War Conflict in the Congo

John Kent author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:19th Mar '10

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America, the UN and Decolonisation cover

This book examines the role of the UN in conflict resolution in Africa in the 1960s and its relation to the Cold War.

Focussing on the Congo, this book shows how the preservation of the existing economic and social order in the Congo was a key element in the decolonisation process and the fighting of the Cold War. It links the international aspects of British, Belgian, Angolan and Central African Federation involvement with the roles of the US and UN in order to understand how supplies to and profits from the Congo were producing growing African problems. This large Central African country played a vital, if not fully understood role, in the Cold War and proved to be a fascinating example of complex African problems of decolonisation interacting with international forces, in ways that revealed a great deal about the problems inherent in colonialism and its end.

This book will be of much interest to students of US foreign policy, the UN, Cold War history and international history in general.

'Anglophone historians in the last two decades have done little to place the crises that beset the Democratic Republic of Congo between independence in 1960 and 1964 in the contexts of Cold War diplomatic history. This new book is an important corrective to this negligence. By using US and British diplomatic archives that were closed to researchers in the 1960s, Kent (international relations, London School of Economics) uncovers the extremely complex negotiations between various Congolese actors, US officials, the UN, and the divided Belgian political establishment. [...] An excellent book on African decolonization, the Congo, and 1960s Cold War diplomatic history. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.' -- J. M. Rich, Middle Tennessee State University

ISBN: 9780415464147

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 540g

256 pages