Field: History

Research

Dr. Webster’s research is focused on trans-Pacific interactions between Canada and Asia, especially in the realms of diplomacy, religion and economic development; and the transnational diplomatic identities of movements for independence around the Pacific Rim, especially in Timor-Leste (East Timor) and Indonesia. He has three major current projects:

Modern Missionaries: Canadian Development Advisors in Southeast Asia, 1945-65

Postwar Canadian approaches to Asia were often in the non-governmental realm, drawing on the country’s missionary heritage. While diplomats in Ottawa worked for pro-Western states in the political realm, Canadian policies on economic development also aimed at building new states in the Canadian image. Canadians in government, transnational and non-governmental positions offered their own country as a model.

The international experts called together by the UN Technical Assistance Administration were central to Canadian postwar hopes and aspirations. The Administration, headed by Canadian civil servant Hugh Keenleyside, also included staff member George Cadbury, previously director of the Saskatchewan CCF government’s Economic Planning Board. It was individual Canadian technical advisers like these who offered the hands-on advice and played the crucial role in shaping policy taken by Southeast Asian states. These “modern missionaries” imagined themselves as part of a transnational community, one in which Canada could play a leadership role by being an active member of multilateral organizations.

L’action canadienne d’après-guerre en Asie s’est souvent déroulée en marge des interventions gouvernementales, faisant appel à la charité missionnaire. Sur le plan politique, Ottawa favorisait l’ouverture des États sur l’Occident, tandis que sur le plan économique, ses politiques visaient à encourager l’avènement de nouveaux États à l’image du Canada. Les Canadiens oeuvrant dans les secteurs gouvernemental, transnational et non gouvernemental offraient alors leur propre pays en exemple.

Par leur travail, les conseillers techniques canadiens ont joué un rôle déterminant et apporté les conseils pratiques nécessaires pour orienter la destinée des États du sud-est asiatique. Ces « missionnaires modernes » se voyaient membres d’une collectivité transnationale au sein de laquelle le Canada pouvait occuper une place prééminente en s’engageant activement dans plusieurs organisations multilatérales. Aux côtés de l’ONU, le Canada mettait ses espoirs d’après-guerre dans les experts internationaux réunis par l’Administration de l’assistance technique des Nations unies, sous la houlette du fonctionnaire canadien Hugh Keenleyside et d’une équipe dont était membre George Cadbury, ancien dirigeant du Conseil de planification économique du gouvernement CCF de la Saskatchewan.

Notion-States: Non-State Diplomacy on the Pacific Rim

This project studies the ideas and activities independence movements in maritime Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia and Timor-Leste) and the Southwest Pacific, from the early twentieth century to the present. A series of “notion-states” emerged in each case, before the creation of a nation-state. This is a study, therefore, in the formation of national identity and in the way new nations asserted themselves internationally.

A “notion-state” is a group of people who come to consider themselves as a nation before acquiring a state, with members of the notion-state trying to win international support and recognition. That diplomatic campaign in turn affects the way the prospective nation is imagined.

To illustrate by example: the former Portuguese colony of Timor-Leste (East Timor) was invaded and occupied by the armed forces of neighbouring Indonesia from 1975 to 1999, gaining independence in 2002. During that occupation, a group of ethnically and linguistically diverse peoples came to consider themselves a single Timorese nation, in the course of shared suffering and resistance to Indonesian rule. Timorese independence campaigners first tried to copy the model of “third world” liberation movements pioneered in Africa. This combined guerrilla resistance inside the territory and a “diplomatic front” that tried to win the support of the international community and disrupt Indonesia’s own overseas diplomatic, economic and military support. The diplomatic front gained primacy with a successful effort to disrupt Indonesia’s international alliances, using the language of human rights and a global indigenous “fourth world.” This approach conferred greater ability to build transnational alliances in the “first world” of developed North America, Europe and Australia. International developments in turn played a crucial role in altering East Timorese identity. Before becoming an independent nation-state, East Timorese came to think of themselves as a notion-state, “already independent” and alive in the minds of its people, both inside the territory and in a global diaspora.

Canadian Churches and the trans-Pacific

The role of religion cannot be overlooked in international affairs. From the great Christian missionary enterprise to Asia in the 19th century, in which Canadians played a major role, to the “clash of civilizations” rhetoric that informs today’s “war on terror,” relations between states and societies have been deeply informed by religious flows, currents and clashes. Scholars are paying increasing attention internationally to the role of non-state actors, including religious organizations, in historical and contemporary foreign policy. Meanwhile, Canada’s relations with Asia in the political, economic, and social fields are more and more important. This informs a growing area of study about the history of Canada-Asia interactions.

This project addresses the role of Canadian churches in shaping Canadian foreign relations, especially with Asia. Did Canadian churches have their own “Asia policy” distinct from the Canadian government? If so, how did it interact with state policy? Without seeing the place of religious organizations in Canada’s foreign relations, we cannot come to a full understanding of Canada’s place in the world. Two Canadian church coalitions illustrate these themes in Canada-Asia relations: the Canada China Programme and the Canada Asia Working Group. They were proactive, autonomous foreign policy actors occupying a space between Canadian churches, the Canadian government, and Asian partner organizations who themselves had shifting relations with their own governments. A study of these organizations contributes to our understanding of non-state influences on foreign policy and the interplay of religion and international relations history.

Publications

Fire and the Full Moon: Canada and Indonesia in a Decolonizing World (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2009).

“Development Advisors in a Time of Cold War and Decolonization: The UN Technical Assistance Administration, 1950-1959,” Journal of Global History 6 no. 2 (2011): 249-272.

“Petrolio, Imperi e Nazionalismo Economico: il Saskatchewan e l’Indonesia a confront, 1944-1963” [“Oil, empire and economic nationalism in Saskatchewan and Indonesia, 1944-63,”] 900: Per una storia del tempo presente (Italy) no. 4 (2011): 59-83.

“Canada and Bilateral Human Rights Dialogues,” Canadian Foreign Policy 16 no. 3 (2010): 43-63.

“Self-fulfilling prophecies and human rights in Canada’s foreign policy: the case of East Timor,” International Journal 65 no. 3 (2010): 739-750. Winner of Marvin Gelber award for best article in journal by a junior scholar, 2010.

“Modern Missionaries: Canadian Postwar Technical Assistance Advisors in Southeast Asia,” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 20 no. 2 (2009): 86-111.

“Canadian Catholics and the East Timor Struggle, 1975-99,” Historical Studies 75 (2009): 63-82. Winner of Paul Bator award for best article in journal, 2008-09.

“Regimes in Motion: The Kennedy Administration and Indonesia’s New Frontier, 1960-1962,” Diplomatic History 33 no. 1 (January 2009): 92-123.

“History, Nation and Narrative in East Timor’s Truth Commission Report,” Pacific Affairs 80 #4 (2007): 581-91.

“From Sabang to Merauke: Nationalist Separation Movements in Indonesia,” Asia Pacific Viewpoint 48 no. 1 (April 2007): 85-93.

“Dari Sabang sampai Merauke: Gerakan Pemisahan Nasionalis di Indonesia” [“From Sabang to Merauke: Nationalist Separation Movements in Indonesia,”] in Drama Indonesia: Ketidakpastian di Tengah Globabalisasi [Indonesian Drama: Uncertainty in a Globalizing World] eds. Geoffrey Hainsworth & Bakti Setiawan (Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Gadjah Mada University Press, 2006).

“Islam and Cold War Modernization in the Formative Years of the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies,” International Journal of Canadian Studies 32 (2005): 15-43.