The Cold War in Southeast Asia

Author(s):  
Ang Cheng Guan

This chapter examines the history of the Cold War in Southeast Asia. It explains that the onset of the Cold War coincided with nationalist struggles and decolonization, and explains why Southeast Asians should appreciate that the Cold War is a historical event which has significantly affected the development of their countries, particularly in terms of the role of the Cold War in shaping the political development of the nation-states and interstate relations in the region, and the growing interest in rewriting the history of the Cold War.

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-312
Author(s):  
Wen-Qing Ngoei

This essay examines how the history of the Cold War in Southeast Asia has shaped, and will likely continue to shape, the current Sino-US rivalry in the region. Expert commentary today typically focuses on the agendas and actions of the two big powers, the United States and China, which actually risks missing the bigger picture. During the Cold War, leaders of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) played a critical role in containing Chinese influence, shaping the terms of Sino-US competition and rapprochement, and deepening the US presence in Southeast Asia. The legacy of ASEAN’s foreign relations during and since the Cold War imposes constraints on Chinese regional ambitions today, which militates against the popular notion that Chinese hegemony in East and Southeast Asia is inevitable. This essay underscores that current analyses of the brewing crisis in and around the South China Sea must routinely look beyond the two superpowers to the under-appreciated agency of small- and middle-sized ASEAN actors who, in reality, are the ones who hold the fate of the region in their hands.


2020 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 159-179
Author(s):  
Ulbe Bosma

The geographical term “Southeast Asia” dates from the 1930s, and came to denote a topic for academic studies in the early days of the Cold War. As such, it includes Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indochina, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines. Southeast Asia has become thoroughly incorporated in the global economy over the past 150 years; first, as a producer of commodities, and later, as a supplier of cheap garments and electronic components. Under Dutch colonialism and British hegemony—the latter established by the conquest of Burma and the imposition of free trade on Siam and the Philippines in the 1850s—Southeast Asia was turned into a key provider of commodities for the industrializing countries. During high colonialism, from 1870 to 1930, the region became increasingly intertwined, via Singapore as the central port and through the role of mainland Southeast Asia as the rice basket for the plantations of maritime Southeast Asia. After the Second World War, the region was the world's most violent frontier of containment for communist expansion. In recent decades, Southeast Asia has become integrated in global commodity chains as a producer of cheap industrial goods, often as a subcontractor for more advanced economies, such as those of Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, and later on, Southeast China.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Henk Schulte Nordholt

In this article the impact of the Cold War in Southeast Asia is evaluated. The region was turned into the hottest battlefields of this conflict which costed the lives of about seven million people. The Cold War also terminated fragile attempts to turn newly independent nation-states into democracies. Instead every country in Southeast Asia experienced authoritarian rule by either capitalist of socialist regimes. In the capitalist countries middle classes emerged which profited from economic growth under authoritarian rule. Since democracy was associated with instability and mass violence and economic growth with authoritarian rule, middle classes were very late in supporting new attempts to democratize their political systems.


Author(s):  
Amy L. Sayward

This chapter explores the role of international institutions during the Cold War. It explains that while international institutions promoted their own agendas for global action, they also provided venues for raising questions about the bipolar power contest and acted as mitigators in international conflicts. The chapter also suggests that the histories of international institutions can provide insights into the complexities of the Cold War. It furthermore discusses the role of the United Nations in creating an era of global expectations and conventions that do fit into the nation-states paradigm, and highlights the emergence of the so-called world society or world culture during the Cold War.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-19
Author(s):  
V I Yakunin

The article deals with the analysis of the myths and ideological clichés as the fundamental elements of U.S. foreign policy. The author emphasizes the necessity to study the discourses formed by political elites around the main problems and directions of the state’s foreign policy. At the same time, in the article an attempt is made to integrate the achievements of Western and Russian political science related to ideological clichés and myths. Particular attention is paid to the role of myths and ideological clichés in the legitimization of the government’s foreign policy actions in the eyes of the electorate. The author shows the history of the formation of the basic myths and clichés of the U.S. foreign policy, their implementation during and after the Cold War. The article contains a detailed analysis of the concept of American exclusivity as well as the foreign policy guidelines that follow from it. In conclusion, the author shows how the world has adopted to such an approach for conducting foreign policy by the hegemonic state and what methods it uses to counteract it.


Author(s):  
Mercedes Yusta Rodrigo

Resumen: El artículo aborda una faceta poco conocida de la historia de la militancia de las mujeres comunistas españolas en el exilio: su participación en una organización internacional, la Federación Democrática Internacional de Mujeres, creada en Paris en 1945 con el objetivo de federar las organizaciones de mujeres antifascistas del mundo entero. Las comunistas españolas, con Dolores Ibárruri a la cabeza, tuvieron un papel muy importante en la definición de las estrategias y la propia organización de la Federación, la cual representa un caso de movilización femenina transnacional muy importante en el marco de la Guerra fría. El articulo resitúa la creación de organizaciones femeninas antifascistas en la larga duración, describe el papel de las comunistas españolas en el seno de la FDIM, y, finalmente, analiza la relación entre la FDIM y la movilización antifranquista, que incluye la creación de un lenguaje político común en el seno de este movimiento femenino, muy marcado por el materialismo político.Palabras clave: Mujeres, Comunismo, Exilio, Internacionalismo, Antifascismo, Guerra Fría.Abstract: The article addresses a little-known facet of the history of the militancy of Spanish communist women in exile : their participation in an international organization, the Women’s International Democratic Federation, created in Paris in 1945 with the aim of federating anti-fascist women’s organizations worldwide. The Spanish communists, led by Dolores Ibárruri, played a very important role in defining the strategies and organization of the Federation itself, which represents a very important case of transnational women’s mobilization in the context of the Cold War. The article discusses the creation of women’s anti-fascist organizations in the long term, describes the role of the Spanish communists within the FDIM, and finally analyzes the relationship between the FDIM and the anti-Franco mobilization, which includes the creation of a common political language within this women’s movement, very marked by political motherhood.Keywords: Women, Communism, Exile, Internationalism, Anti-fascism, Cold War.


Author(s):  
Sara Lorenzini

This introductory chapter provides an overview of how development became a Cold War global project from the late 1940s until the late 1980s. Narrating the political, intellectual, and economic history of the twentieth century through the lens of development means dealing with ideas as much as with material transformation, recounting the ways ideas and projects affected local realities, transnational interactions, and, eventually, notions of development. In describing this trajectory, the book makes three main points. First, it argues that the Cold War was fundamental in shaping the global aspirations and ideologies of development and modeling the institutional structures that still rule foreign aid today. Second, it contends that the role of the state was crucial, and that though development projects were articulated in global terms, as narratives to frame problems and provide solutions, they actually served national purposes. Third, it argues that development institutions tried to create a universal and homogeneous concept of development but ultimately failed.


Asian Survey ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (5) ◽  
pp. 953-970 ◽  
Author(s):  
KIM HYUNG JONG ◽  
LEE POH PING

ASEAN’s dialogue mechanism has been evolving from consensus-seeking to strategic means, to use the Habermas distinction. This consensus norm was maintained during the Cold War because of rapport among ASEAN leaders and the presence of an external threat. However, ASEAN expansion to 10 countries, the emergence of non-traditional threats to security, and democratization have weakened this norm.


Author(s):  
John Prados

This chapter examines the role of intelligence operations in the history of the Cold War. The analysis reveals that Cold War intelligence agencies played important roles in foreign policy in the way they conditioned the perceptions of leaders and catalyzed events. One of the best examples of this is the direct influence of intelligence operations upon diplomacy in the U-2 Affair. The chapter, which suggests that intelligence activities in the Cold War produced diplomatic and military consequences and influenced international agreements, also discusses the role of espionage and technical data collection in providing diplomats with vital information for negotiations with their counterparts.


Author(s):  
James R. Rush

Most of Southeast Asia’s colonies had been created by conquest and coercion. Almost everywhere, Southeast Asians attempted to fend off European rule in every way possible. “Nations” describes the processes of resistance to colonial powers, growing nationalism, and new movements for political reform and independence. Japan’s entry to World War II changed everything. The impact of the war on Southeast Asia is explained along with the move to independence and nation-building that followed. It also outlines the effects of the Cold War, the signing of the ground-breaking Treaty of Amity and Cooperation by the ASEAN members, and the financial booms and crashes of the 1990s and 2000s.


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