This thesis focuses on an informal collective of individuals known as the ‘Rijkens group’. It offers new insights in the influence this group has had on the international developments of the West...Show moreThis thesis focuses on an informal collective of individuals known as the ‘Rijkens group’. It offers new insights in the influence this group has had on the international developments of the West New Guinea dispute, thereby strongly challenging current historiographical consensus. This topic is approached from a New Diplomatic History perspective and focuses in almost equal parts on private archives, governmental archives and secondary literature. It showcases the value of expanding the notion of ‘diplomacy’ to also include non-state actors and therefore is able to present a more complete image of the exchanges between, and influences on, the countries involved in the dispute. Ultimately this thesis is able to conclude that the group was of large influence on the views and undertakings of the different governments involved in the dispute. This is accompanied by the group’s influence on Dutch domestic press coverage of the West New Guinea dispute. Such coverage turned out to be much more representative of the group’s opinion on the matter than that of the actual larger public.Show less
