STUDYING THE BANDUNG CONFERENCE FROM A GLOBAL IR PERSPECTIVE
Executive Summary:
Many scholarly articles and documents often overlook the significance of the Bandung
Conference as a significant fertile ground for discussion of post-war global international relations
of states especially those who have become independent during the end of WWII in the Asian
hemisphere.
In this document, we will examine how the author put the conferences’ key influences on
how our leaders approach the Global IR and puts it as an underlying framework for much of
what is the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) today.
Indonesia as the host country, the Bandung Conference was attended (by then) 29
independent countries across the Asian continent being African National Congress as a mere
observer. Although this was not the first international conference by ‘people of color’, this one
held at Bandung was considered as the first significant gathering of national leader who shared
the same goal of decolonization. As Sukarno of Malaysia puts it, ‘it was not assembled there by
choice, but by necessity.’ Meaning ever since, former colonies have recognized the need for
pushing complete independence and sovereignty on each of their motherland.
As we continue to examine the whole discussion, the author identified several legacies of
the conference (either good or bad) that has a substantial effect ranging from the Cold War, the
establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement, the reshaping of the Asian regionalism without the
influence of the two dominating Asian nations at that time, India and China. How it led to the
foundation of the ASEAN. Even the promotion of human rights advocacies which has
recognized the United Nations (UN) as the key global sponsor for such advocacies. And of
course, the individual negative effect of the conference among leaders like that of Egypt and
Malaysia.
Before the conference, the United States of America and leaders of the United Kingdom,
have expressed their disapproval from such events happening. Even though this was the case,
Asian-African leaders have stood their ground towards instilling to these old – imperialists
nations a sense of their ability to collectively voice out their understanding of what Global IR
should mean. One of the most notable accounts for that was when Egypt’s new leader, Gamal
Abdel Nasser entered the conference as a pro-Western but exited a change man, perhaps it can be
credited to Nehru’s position on the dynamics of the Cold War and how certain former colonized
countries could be dragged into it. Although it cannot be linked directly to the conference, the
author described Nasser’s experience at the conference to be the reason for the former Egyptian
leader’s change of policy which eventually changed the course of the Cold War (though no
specifically stated how it will affect the latter).
This goes to show that not only was the Western paranoia have caused embarrassment to
themselves but also came to realize that these former colonized nations, when gathered with the
same goal in mind to promote anti-colonialism of these western imperialists nations and to have
a collective sense of sovereignty over their own land, despite their differences, collective
resistance was displayed against the Western dominance in international relations.
Never has the Asian hemisphere seen the conference as one of the largest rounding up of
international leaders hosted by the world’s largest Muslim country in the course of post-colonial
history. Highlighted by the author as embodiment of the Muslim motto, ‘unity over diversity’
this is also the largest gathering of national leaders with diverse faiths.
Reflection:
While the Global IR viewpoint has a few components the ones that are generally
pertinent to the investigation of the Bandung gathering might be noted here. Worldwide IR
expands the investigation of world legislative issues to incorporate the thoughts, characters,
establishments, occasions and cycles that are outside of, and testing to, the highway arrangement
of Europe and its frontier development, which have been key to the development of the
predominant IR speculations. Worldwide IR tries to uncover natively determined examples of
association all throughout the planet, focusing on nearby, territorial and inter- regional
communications, and through them, the organization of non-Western countries.
For Global IR, genuine universalism is one that perceives the variety of human
associations, maybe than one that legitimizes the burden of a transiently predominant Western
progress. Worldwide IR likewise energizes the investigation of the continuous worldwide force
shift particularly with the overall decrease of the West and ascent of new powers like China,
India, Turkey and Indonesia.
At last, Global IR perceives the nearby nexus between disciplinary IR and the region
concentrates on custom, and explores the numerous and complex manners by which civic
establishments cooperate with one another, including through a pacific course of common
learning.
The investigation of the Bandung Conference likewise gives a magnificent illustration of
how the region concentrates on custom can work with the discipline of IR to improve both and
make the establishment of a Global IR. Bandung has been examined from IR hypothetical
viewpoints, particularly basic and social constructivist points of view.
These viewpoints add lavishness and refinement to the examination of the meeting, and
extend its message and importance past the South-East Asian or Asian investigations local area.
The region concentrates on custom can just profit from this extended inclusion of and regard for
an occasion that happened at the core of South-East Asia, much as the investigation of ASEAN
—which has a regulating joint with the Bandung gathering—is ending up an advancing gathering
point for both region subject matter experts and Global IR scholars.
