Fire and the Full Moon: Canada and Indonesia in a Decolonizing World

Our image of Canada’s postwar foreign policy is dominated by the Cold War, while the story of Canada’s response to decolonization in the Global South is less well known. This book explores Canadian-Indonesian relations to determine whether Canada’s postwar foreign policy was guided by an overarching set of altruistic principles. It shows that Canada remained a loyal member of the Western alliance. Canada wanted developing countries to follow its own non-revolutionary model of decolonization and paid little attention to violations of human rights. Webster’s reassessment of Canada’s foreign-policy objectives in Indonesia, and of its own national image, will appeal to students of diplomatic history interested in Asia and the developing world.