Transatlantic relations in the run-up to Pearl Harbor: The Dutch East Indies at Stake

This paper provides an extensive historical reconstruction of the diplomatic exchanges between the United States, the Netherlands and Great Britain regarding the 1941 oil embargo on Japan. Based on new multi-archival evidence, it interrogates Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s foreign policy and allied cooperation in the Far East during this time, and sheds new light on the question whether FDR aimed to provoke or deter Japan at the onset of the American entry into World War II. This research contributes to the diplomatic and transatlantic history literature, foreign policy analysis literature, and speaks more specifically to the debate on deception and the American entry into the Second World War. © 2019, The Editor of the Journal.