The author, a signatory to the Paris Peace Agreements, reflects on his personal participation in the peace negotiations among the warring factions of Cambodia that eventually ended the fighting and brought peace. In tracing the insurmountable obstacles to peace, he identifies new challenges to political stability, both foreign and domestic, and recommends that all Cambodians should end the politics of divisiveness and work towards national unity.
Full Text PDFThe author of this tribute wrote the only full-length, authorized biography of Prince Norodom Ranariddh, son of Norodom Sihanouk, in 2001. Here, he reflects on the life of a prince who skimmed the heights of political power, went into premature decline, and staged a remarkable resurrection.
Full Text PDFMost diplomatic historians conclude that the failure of the Johnson administration’s second bombing pause over North Vietnam and first major peace offensive from December 25, 1965 to January 31, 1966 was a fait accompli. Moreover, the resumption of bombing was ordered without major debate within the national security state. “The Unauthorized Diplomat” challenges this interpretation by exploring the aftermath of the American peace activist and scholar Staughton Lynd’s ten-day fact-finding trip to North Vietnam and discussions with representations of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and the National Liberation Front (NLF) in Prague, Moscow, and Hanoi. Ultimately, Lynd’s experiences throughout 1965 and his conversations with “the other side” during the peace offensive convinced him that alternatives to escalation existed in January 1966 and, unbeknownst to him, were reflected in the high-level deliberations and decision-making in the White House. This was perhaps the last best chance to avoid even greater U.S. escalation of the Vietnam War.
Full Text PDFIndia’s Look East Policy, renamed Act East Policy in 2014, aims at bridging the gap with Southeast Asian countries and improving both diplomatic and commercial ties with them. The targeted goal, however, may not be achieved without the involvement and participation of the Northeastern states on account of their geographical contiguity with Southeast Asian countries. Two Act East policy projects, namely, the Kolodyne Hydro-Electric Project II (HEP II) and the Kolodyne Multi Modal Transit Transport Project (KMMTTP) Road, have been undertaken in the state of Mizoram. Besides these, a Land Customs Station has opened at Zokhawthar. This article analyzes the significance of Mizoram in the ongoing Act East Policy and assesses whether, or not, the change of the nomenclature from “look” to “act” really activates the project at the ground level.
Full Text PDFGuimi is one of millennial China’s favorite lexicons for boudoir confidantes, a coterie of usually three female friends, a support network in life’s struggle in a Promised Land of mammonism and masculinism. Guimi stands on the shoulders of a long line of female bonding in imperial China. In millennial China, this womance manifests itself in young female protagonists in three popular 2020 TV series. That the series do not mellow into more senior women suggests ageism despite the nominal refutation of sexism. Unbound from men, females remain handmaidens to mammon in corporations headed by male CEOs, sinking under the weight of liquid assets plied by men. Liquid assets conjure up another tradition on whose shoulders guimi also stand: imperial female ghosts with their mountain of jostling, mutely screeching bones where guimi perches. This inter-Asian “base” of bones comprises imperial well-being/s, beings born out of killing wells of suicides and femicides.
Full Text PDFThere are compellingly valid reasons to revisit the two decades-long history and diplomatic experience of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization from the 1950s to the 1970s. The emergence of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which some analysts believe may turn into an “Asian NATO” or a “new SEATO” has made it worthwhile to study how previous multilateral alliances in Asia were formed, how they functioned, and subsequently dissolved. The revival of interest in SEATO is seen in new literatures that explore its workings, such as its operational-level contingency plans and counter-insurgency policies. The author reconstructs a lifecycle of SEATO using materials which were unavailable to scholars studying the organization from the 1950s through the 1980s and presents a nuanced assessment of the grouping.
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