Considering its importance the dispute between Indonesia and the Netherlands over Western New Guinea (Irian Barat) has received little scholarly attention. Highly tendentious treatment has characterized most writing concerning the issue, and those who would seek a full and unvarnished account have been little instructed. In so far as the press has been concerned with the problem, its attention has been largely focused on U.N. debates and on current statements by the spokesmen of the countries involved. Slight effort has been made either by journalists or by those who have professed a more scholarly approach to dig into the relevant historical background or to give any full account of the contemporary factors which shape this problem.
In what is the first major study of the dispute, Dr. Robert C. Bone has to a remarkable degree offset these deficiencies. His report is by far the most substantial and thorough yet to appear, and it is the precursor to a considerably more comprehensive monograph on this subject to be printed in 1960. Having a substantial knowledge of the modern history and contemporary politics of Indonesia and the Netherlands, with at least two years of residence in each of these countries and a command of both their languages, and having devoted two years of sustained research to the problem of Western New Guinea, he is perhaps uniquely qualified to write this study. - George McT. Kahin
About the Author Prior to embarking on an academic career Robert C. Bone served as Political Officer in the American Embassy in The Hague from 1947 to 1949 and as Senior Political Officer in the American Embassy in Djakarta from 1951 to 1953. In 1954 he resigned from the Foreign Service and entered Cornell University as a fellow in its Southeast Asia Program. From January through September 1956 he carried out research in the Netherlands under a fellowship from the Ford Foundation. He received his Ph.D. degree from Cornell University in 1957, and has since then been Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Tulane University.