ET HELLIGT HVERV - GRØNLANDS AFKOLONISERING, 1945-54

• Main Author: Olesen, Simon Mølholm
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Danish
• Published: Nyt Selskab for Historie 2017
• Subjects: Grønland; afkolonisering; Foucault; FN; 1950’erne; Greenland
• Online Access: https://tidsskrift.dk/temp/article/view/24986

Simon Mølholm Olsesen: A sacred trust: The decolonization of Greenland1945-54The present article will ignite a discussion on the strategies, through Michel Foucault’s thoughts on governmentality adapted to the colonial context by DavidScott, with which Greenland, the last Danish colony, was integrated into the Kingdom of Denmark in 1953-54 under the impression of decolonization tendencies in the recently established United Nations. Especially the Foucauldian notion of a governmental defense mechanism, embodied in a tendency to annihilate any threat opposing the colonial governmentality, will be employed in order to display the logics and outcomes of the said strategy. The defense mechanism is interpreted as banal nationalism perceived as a highly in????luential current propelling both internally and externally expressed assumptions of a tutelary or benevolent Danish colonial regime legitimizing a continued Danish presence in Greenland.Finally, it is maintained that a window of opportunity appeared during 1945-60,de????ined by the said theoretical framework manifested in the establishment of the UN in 1945 through the Suez Crisis of 1956 to the adoption of UN Resolution 1514 (XV) in 1960 facilitated a halt to imperial aspirations, which enabled the Danish government to successfully pursue its policy of colonial integration.