scholarly journals Meaghan Morris in Cultural Studies in Asia

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chua Beng Huat
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Third World ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Martial Law ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Hotel Room ◽  
The Core ◽  
Southeast Asian Countries

Meaghan has been part of the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies project from the very beginning— she was at the founding conferences, organised by Chen Kuan-Hsing, in National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, between 1992 and 1995. The two conferences bore the title of ‘Trajectories: Towards a New Internationalist Cultural Studies’ and ‘Trajectories II: A New Internationalist Cultural Studies’, respectively. According to Kuan-Hsing, he was motivated by historical changes in Asia, from postwar decolonisation to post-Cold War in late 1980s, marked locally in Taiwan with the lifting of martial law in 1987. This was also the period of the rise of Asia within global capitalism, beginning with Japan, followed by the so-called ‘Tiger’ or ‘Dragon’ economies of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore via the export-oriented industrialisation. The industrialisation model was subsequently picked up by China and the other Southeast Asian countries. The conferences certainly lived up to their promise of being international, with presenters from first and third world locations, and the core concerns were very much grounded in the historical conjuncture of Asia at the end of the twentieth century. One evening during the second conference, while the edited volume for selected papers were being prepared for publication, Rebecca Barton, the editor for the book project at Routledge, brought up the idea of an Asian cultural studies journal. In a hotel room in Taiwan, with Meaghan, the late Jeannie Martin, Kuan-Hsing and myself from the conference and Rebecca, the plan for Inter-Asia Cultural Studies was hatched. It was decided that Kuan-hsing and I would be the co-executive editors, supported by a relatively large editorial collective drawn across Asia and Australia.

scholarly journals Challenging Empire

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-133
Author(s):  
Amr G. E. Sabet
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The United States ◽  
American People ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Core ◽  
Golden Opportunity

The idea for this book emerged from what the author perceives to be theextraordinary post-cold war circumstances associated with the Americanextremists’ push for empire. Its thesis is simple and straightforward:American unilateralism and militarism have spawned a global social movementagainst such eventualities, giving rise to a new kind of internationalism.The components of this internationalism are threefold: people and socialmovements, governments, and the United Nations (UN). Together, ratheroptimistically or perhaps wishfully, they have come to constitute a “secondsuperpower” capable of challenging this imperial drive (pp. 6 and 257).The book is divided into five chapters. The “Introduction” (chapter 1)presents the thesis and framework of the three-part internationalist perspective.Chapter 2 presents the global social movement as the core componentthat defies war and empire and that exhibits peoples’ power as the foundationof such defiance. The main argument here is that the events of September 11,2001, provided a golden opportunity for the George W. Bush administrationto manipulate and exploit the American people’s fears and shock. Fear,according to Bennis, undermines “not only independence of will, but the verycapacity to think” (p. 31). This was the means by which the neo-conservatives,hijacking state power, were able to carry the American people along,allowing for no serious questioning or opposition. Yet if the United States is ...

Southeast Asia and the United States

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenton Clymer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asian Countries

The U.S. relationship with Southeast Asia has always reflected the state of U.S. interactions with the three major powers that surround the region: Japan, China, and, to a lesser extent, India. Initially, Americans looked at Southeast Asia as an avenue to the rich markets that China and India seemed to offer, while also finding trading opportunities in the region itself. Later, American missionaries sought to save Southeast Asian souls, while U.S. officials often viewed Southeast Asia as a region that could tip the overall balance of power in East Asia if its enormous resources fell under the control of a hostile power. American interest expanded enormously with the annexation of the Philippines in 1899, an outgrowth of the Spanish-American War. That acquisition resulted in a nearly half-century of American colonial rule, while American investors increased their involvement in exploiting the region’s raw materials, notably tin, rubber, and petroleum, and missionaries expanded into areas previously closed to them. American occupation of the Philippines heightened tensions with Japan, which sought the resources of Southeast Asia, particularly in French Indochina, Malaya, and the Dutch East Indies (today’s Indonesia). Eventually, clashing ambitions and perceptions brought the United States into World War II. Peeling those territories away from Japan during the war was a key American objective. Americans resisted the Japanese in the Philippines and in Burma, but after Japan quickly subdued Southeast Asia, there was little contact in the region until the reconquest began in 1944. American forces participated in the liberation of Burma and also fought in the Dutch Indies and the Philippines before the war ended in 1945. After the war, the United States had to face the independence struggles in several Southeast Asian countries, even as the Grand Alliance fell apart and the Cold War emerged, which for the next several decades overshadowed almost everything. American efforts to prevent communist expansion in the region inhibited American support for decolonization and led to war in Vietnam and Laos and covert interventions elsewhere. With the end of the Cold War in 1991, relations with most of Southeast Asia have generally been normal, except for Burma/Myanmar, where a brutal military junta ruled. The opposition, led by the charismatic Aung San Suu Kyi, found support in the United States. More recently American concerns with China’s new assertiveness, particularly in the South China Sea, have resulted in even closer U.S. relations with Southeast Asian countries.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document