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Arc of Containment: Britain, the United States, and Anticommunism in Southeast Asia

Wen-Qing Ngoei

This book recasts the history of American empire in Southeast and East Asia from the Pacific War through the end of U.S. intervention in Vietnam. It argues that anticommunist nationalism in Southeast ... More

This book recasts the history of American empire in Southeast and East Asia from the Pacific War through the end of U.S. intervention in Vietnam. It argues that anticommunist nationalism in Southeast Asia intersected with pre-existing local antipathy toward China and the Chinese diaspora to usher the region from European-dominated colonialism into U.S. hegemony. Between the late 1940s and 1960s, Britain and its indigenous collaborators in Malaya and Singapore overcame the mostly Chinese communist parties of both countries by crafting a pro-West nationalism that was anticommunist by virtue of its anti-Chinese bent. London’s neocolonial schemes in Malaya and Singapore prolonged its influence in the region. But as British power waned, Malaya and Singapore’s anticommunist leaders cast their lot with the United States, mirroring developments in the Philippines, Thailand and, in the late 1960s, Indonesia. In effect, these five anticommunist states established, with U.S. support, a geostrategic arc of containment that encircled China and its regional allies. Southeast Asia’s imperial transition from colonial order to U.S. empire, through the tumult of decolonization and the Cold War, was more characteristic of the region’s history after 1945 than Indochina’s embrace of communism.Less

Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness: Political Exile and Re-education in Mao's China

Ning Wang

After Mao Zedong's Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957–58, Chinese intellectuals were subjected to “re-education” by the state. This book draws on labor farm archives, interviews, and memoirs to provide a ... More

After Mao Zedong's Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957–58, Chinese intellectuals were subjected to “re-education” by the state. This book draws on labor farm archives, interviews, and memoirs to provide a remarkable look at the suffering and complex psychological world of these banished Beijing intellectuals. The book's use of newly uncovered Chinese-language sources challenges the concept of the intellectual as renegade martyr, showing how exiles often declared allegiance to the state for self-preservation. While Mao's campaign victimized the banished, many of those same people also turned against their comrades. The book describes the ways in which the state sought to remold the intellectuals, and it illuminates the strategies the exiles used to deal with camp officials and improve their chances of survival.Less

Black Market Business: Selling Sex in Northern Vietnam, 1920-1945

Christina Elizabeth Firpo

This book is a grassroots social history of the clandestine market for sex in colonial Tonkin. It explores the ways in which sex workers, managers, and clients evaded the colonial regulation system ... More

This book is a grassroots social history of the clandestine market for sex in colonial Tonkin. It explores the ways in which sex workers, managers, and clients evaded the colonial regulation system in the turbulent economy of the interwar years. The book argues that the confluence of economic, demographic, and cultural changes sweeping late colonial Tonkin created spaces of tension in which the interwar black-market sex industry thrived. The clandestine sex industry flourished in sites of legal inconsistency, cultural changes, economic disparity, rural–urban division, and demographic shifts. As a nexus of the many tensions besetting late colonial Tonkin, the black-market sex industry serves as a useful lens through which to examine these tensions and the ways they affected marginalized populations. More specifically, an investigation of this black market shows how a particular population of impoverished women — a group regrettably understudied by historians — experienced the tensions. Drawing on an astonishingly diverse and multilingual source base, the book includes detailed cases of juvenile prostitution, human trafficking, and debt-bondage arrangements in sex work, as well as cases in Tonkin's bars, hotels, singing houses, and dance clubs. Using GIS technology and big data sets to track individual actors in history, it serves as a model for teaching new methodological approaches to conducting social histories of women and marginalized people.Less

Bones Around My Neck: The Life and Exile of a Prince Provocateur

Tamara Loos

Prince Prisdang Chumsai (1852–1935) served as Siam's first diplomat to Europe during the most dramatic moment of Siam's political history, when its independence was threatened by European ... More

Prince Prisdang Chumsai (1852–1935) served as Siam's first diplomat to Europe during the most dramatic moment of Siam's political history, when its independence was threatened by European imperialism. Despite serving with patriotic zeal, he suffered irreparable social and political ruin based on rumors about fiscal corruption, sexual immorality, and political treason. This book pursues the truth behind these rumors, which chased Prisdang out of Siam. This book recounts the personal and political adventures of an unwitting provocateur who caused a commotion in every country he inhabited. Prisdang spent his first five years in exile from Siam living in disguise as a commoner and employee of the British Empire in colonial Southeast Asia. He then resurfaced in the 1890s in British Ceylon, where he was ordained as a Buddhist monk and became a widely-respected abbot. Foreigners from around the world were drawn to this prince who had discarded wealth and royal status to lead the life of an ascetic. His fluency in English, royal blood, acute intellect, and charisma earned him importance in international diplomatic and Buddhist circles. Prisdang's life journey reminds us of the complexities of the colonial encounter and the recalibrations it caused in local political cultures. His drama offers more than a story about Siamese politics: it also casts in high relief the subjective experience of global imperialism. Telling this history from the vantage point of a remarkable individual grounds and animates the historical abstractions of imperialism, Buddhist universalism, and the transformation of Siam into a modern state.Less

Can Science and Technology Save China?

Susan Greenhalgh and Li Zhang (eds)

This book assesses the intimate connections between science and society in China, offering an in-depth look at how an array of sciences and technologies are being made, how they are interfacing with ... More

This book assesses the intimate connections between science and society in China, offering an in-depth look at how an array of sciences and technologies are being made, how they are interfacing with society, and with what effects. Focusing on critical domains of daily life, the chapters explore how scientists, technicians, surgeons, therapists, and other experts create practical knowledges and innovations, as well as how ordinary people take them up as they pursue the good life. The book offers a rare, up-close view of the politics of Chinese science-making, showing how everyday logics, practices, and ethics of science, medicine, and technology are profoundly reshaping contemporary China. By foregrounding the notion of “governing through science,” and the contested role of science and technology as instruments of change, the book addresses important questions regarding what counts as science in China, what science and technology can do to transform China, as well as their limits and unintended consequences.Less

China and the End of Global Silver, 1873-1937

Austin Dean

In the late nineteenth century, as much of the world adopted some variant of the gold standard, China remained the most populous country still using silver. Yet China had no unified national ... More

In the late nineteenth century, as much of the world adopted some variant of the gold standard, China remained the most populous country still using silver. Yet China had no unified national currency; there was not one monetary standard but many. Silver coins circulated alongside chunks of silver and every transaction became an “encounter of wits.” This book focuses on how officials, policy makers, bankers, merchants, academics, and journalists in China and around the world answered a simple question: how should China change its monetary system? Far from a narrow, technical issue, Chinese monetary reform is a dramatic story full of political revolutions, economic depressions, chance, and contingency. As different governments in China attempted to create a unified monetary standard in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the United States, England, and Japan tried to shape the direction of Chinese monetary reform for their own benefit. This book argues convincingly that the silver era in world history ended owing to the interaction of imperial competition in East Asia and the state-building projects of different governments in China. When the Nationalist government of China went off the silver standard in 1935, it marked a key moment not just in Chinese history but in world history.Less

Civilizational Imperatives: Americans, Moros, and the Colonial World

Oliver Charbonneau

This book reveals the little-known history of the United States' colonization of the Philippines' Muslim South in the early twentieth century. Often referred to as Moroland, the Sulu Archipelago and ... More

This book reveals the little-known history of the United States' colonization of the Philippines' Muslim South in the early twentieth century. Often referred to as Moroland, the Sulu Archipelago and the island of Mindanao were sites of intense US engagement and laboratories of colonial modernity during an age of global imperialism. Exploring the complex relationship between colonizer and colonized from the late nineteenth century until the eve of the Second World War, the book argues that American power in the Islamic Philippines rested upon a transformative vision of colonial rule. Civilization, protection, and instruction became watchwords for U.S. military officers and civilian administrators, who enacted fantasies of racial reform among the diverse societies of the region. Violence saturated their efforts to remake indigenous politics and culture, embedding itself into governance strategies used across four decades. Although it took place on the edges of the Philippine colonial state, this fraught civilizing mission did not occur in isolation. It shared structural and ideological connections to U.S. settler conquest in North America and also borrowed liberally from European and Islamic empires. These circuits of cultural, political, and institutional exchange — accessed by colonial and anticolonial actors alike — gave empire in the Southern Philippines its hybrid character. This book is a story of colonization and connection, reaching across nations and empires in its examination of a Southeast Asian space under US sovereignty. It presents an innovative new portrait of the American empire's global dimensions and the many ways they shaped the colonial encounter in the Southern Philippines.Less

A Delicate Relationship: The United States and Burma/Myanmar since 1945

Kenton Clymer

In 2012, Barack Obama became the first U.S. president ever to visit Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. This official state visit marked a new period in the diplomatic relationship between the United ... More

In 2012, Barack Obama became the first U.S. president ever to visit Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. This official state visit marked a new period in the diplomatic relationship between the United States and Burma/Myanmar, which this book examines. From the challenges of decolonization and heightened nationalist activities that emerged in the wake of World War II to the Cold War concern with domino states to the rise of human rights policy in the 1980s and beyond, the book demonstrates how Burma/Myanmar has fit into the broad patterns of U.S. foreign policy and yet has never been fully integrated into diplomatic efforts in the region of Southeast Asia. When Burma achieved independence in 1948, the United States feared that the country might be the first Southeast Asian nation to fall to the communists, and it embarked on a series of efforts to prevent this. The book explores attitudes toward Burma (later Myanmar) from anticommunism during the Cold War to interventions to stop drug trafficking to debates in Congress, the White House, and the Department of State over how to respond to the emergence of the opposition movement in the late 1980s. The book concludes with President Obama's visits in 2012 and 2014, and visits to the United States by Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein, which marked the establishment of a new, warmer relationship with a relatively open Myanmar.Less

Empire of Dogs: Canines, Japan, and the Making of the Modern Imperial World

Aaron Herald Skabelund

In 1924, Professor Ueno Eizaburo of Tokyo Imperial University adopted an Akita puppy he named Hachikō. Each evening Hachikō greeted Ueno on his return to Shibuya railway station. In May 1925 Ueno ... More

In 1924, Professor Ueno Eizaburo of Tokyo Imperial University adopted an Akita puppy he named Hachikō. Each evening Hachikō greeted Ueno on his return to Shibuya railway station. In May 1925 Ueno died while giving a lecture. Every day for over nine years the Akita waited at Shibuya Station, eventually becoming nationally and even internationally famous for his purported loyalty. A year before his death in 1935, the city of Tokyo erected a statue of Hachikō outside the station. The story of Hachikō reveals much about the place of dogs in Japan's cultural imagination. This book examines the history and cultural significance of dogs in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Japan, beginning with the arrival of Western dog breeds and new modes of dog keeping, which spread throughout the world with Western imperialism. It highlights how dogs joined with humans to create the modern imperial world and how, in turn, imperialism shaped dogs' bodies and their relationship with humans through its impact on dog-breeding and dog-keeping practices that pervade much of the world today.Less

Fifty Years in the Karen Revolution in Burma: The Soldier and the Teacher

Saw Ralph and Sheera Naw

Stephanie Olinga-Shannon (ed.)

This book is about commitment to an ideal, individual survival, and the universality of the human experience. A memoir of two tenacious souls, it sheds light on why Burma/Myanmar's decades-long ... More

This book is about commitment to an ideal, individual survival, and the universality of the human experience. A memoir of two tenacious souls, it sheds light on why Burma/Myanmar's decades-long pursuit for a peaceful and democratic future has been elusive. Simply put, the aspirations of Burma's ethnic nationalities for self-determination within a genuine federal union runs counter to the idea of unitary state orchestrated and run by the dominant majority Burmans, or Bamar. This seemingly intractable dilemma of opposing visions for Burma is personified in the story of Saw Ralph and Naw Sheera, two prominent ethnic Karen leaders who lived—and eventually left—“the Longest War,” leaving the reader with insights on the cultural, social, and political challenges facing other non-Burman ethnic nationalities. The book is also about the ordinariness and universality of the challenges increasingly faced by diaspora communities around the world today. Saw Ralph and Naw Sheera's day-to-day lives—how they fell in love, married, had children—while trying to survive in a precarious war zone—and how they had to adapt to their new lives as refugees and immigrants in Australia will resound with many.Less

Financial Stabilization in Meiji Japan: The Impact of the Matsukata Reform

Steven J. Ericson

With a new look at the 1880s financial reforms in Japan, this book overturns widely held views of the program carried out by Finance Minister Matsukata Masayoshi. The book shows, rather than ... More

With a new look at the 1880s financial reforms in Japan, this book overturns widely held views of the program carried out by Finance Minister Matsukata Masayoshi. The book shows, rather than constituting an orthodox financial-stabilization program—a sort of precursor of the “neoliberal” reforms promoted by the IMF in the 1980s and 1990s—Matsukata's policies differed in significant ways from both classical economic liberalism and neoliberal orthodoxy. The Matsukata financial reform has become famous largely for the wrong reasons, and the book sets the record straight. It shows that Matsukata intended to pursue fiscal retrenchment and budget-balancing when he became finance minister in late 1881. Various exigencies, including foreign military crises and a worsening domestic depression, compelled him instead to increase spending by running deficits and floating public bonds. Though he drastically reduced the money supply, he combined the positive and contractionary policies of his immediate predecessors to pull off a program of “expansionary austerity” paralleling state responses to financial crisis elsewhere in the world both then and now. Through a new and much-needed recalibration of this pivotal financial reform, the book demonstrates that, in several ways, ranging from state-led export promotion to the creation of a government-controlled central bank, Matsukata advanced policies that were more in line with a nationalist, developmentalist approach than with a liberal economic one. It shows that Matsukata Masayoshi was far from a rigid adherent of classical economic liberalism.Less

From Country to Nation: Ethnographic Studies, Kokugaku, and Spirits in Nineteenth-Century Japan

Gideon Fujiwara

This book tracks the emergence of the modern Japanese nation in the nineteenth century through the history of some of its local aspirants. It explores how kokugaku (Japan studies) scholars envisioned ... More

This book tracks the emergence of the modern Japanese nation in the nineteenth century through the history of some of its local aspirants. It explores how kokugaku (Japan studies) scholars envisioned their place within Japan and the globe, while living in a castle town and domain far north of the political capital. The book follows the story of Hirao Rosen and fellow scholars in the northeastern domain of Tsugaru. On discovering a newly “opened” Japan facing the dominant Western powers and a defeated Qing China, Rosen and other Tsugaru intellectuals embraced kokugaku to secure a place for their local “country” within the broader nation and to reorient their native Tsugaru within the spiritual landscape of an Imperial Japan protected by the gods. Although Rosen and his fellows celebrated the rise of Imperial Japan, their resistance to the Western influence and modernity embraced by the Meiji state ultimately resulted in their own disorientation and estrangement. By analyzing their writings alongside their artwork, the book reveals how this socially diverse group of scholars experienced the Meiji Restoration from the peripheries. Using compelling firsthand accounts, the book tells the story of the rise of modern Japan, from the perspective of local intellectuals who envisioned their local “country” within a nation that emerged as an empire of the modern world.Less

Imperial Eclipse: Japan's Strategic Thinking about Continental Asia before August 1945

Yukiko Koshiro

The “Pacific War” narrative of Japan's defeat that was established after 1945 started with the attack on Pearl Harbor, detailed the U.S. island-hopping campaigns across the Western Pacific, and ... More

The “Pacific War” narrative of Japan's defeat that was established after 1945 started with the attack on Pearl Harbor, detailed the U.S. island-hopping campaigns across the Western Pacific, and culminated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan's capitulation, and its recasting as the western shore of an American ocean. But in the decades leading up to World War II and over the course of the conflict, Japan's leaders and citizens were as deeply concerned about continental Asia—and the Soviet Union, in particular—as they were about the Pacific theater and the United States. This book reassesses the role that Eurasia played in Japan's diplomatic and military thinking from the turn of the twentieth century to the end of the war. Through unprecedented archival research, locating documents and reports expunged from the files of the Japanese Cabinet, ministries of Foreign Affairs and War, and Imperial Headquarters, the book reconstructs Japan's official thinking about its plans for continental Asia. It brings to light new information on the assumptions and resulting plans that Japan's leaders made as military defeat became increasingly certain and the Soviet Union slowly moved to declare war on Japan (which it finally did on August 8, two days after Hiroshima). The book also describes Japanese attitudes toward Russia in the prewar years, highlighting the attractions of communism and the treatment of Russians in the Japanese empire; and it traces imperial attitudes toward Korea and China throughout this period.Less

Mass Vaccination: Citizens' Bodies and State Power in Modern China

Mary Augusta Brazelton

While the eradication of smallpox has long been documented, not many know the Chinese roots of this historic achievement. This book examines the People's Republic of China's public health campaigns ... More

While the eradication of smallpox has long been documented, not many know the Chinese roots of this historic achievement. This book examines the People's Republic of China's public health campaigns of the 1950s to explain just how China managed to inoculate almost six hundred million people against this and other deadly diseases. The book tells the story of the people, materials, and systems that built these campaigns, exposing how, by improving the nation's health, the Chinese Communist Party quickly asserted itself in the daily lives of all citizens. This crusade had deep roots in the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, when researchers in China's southwest struggled to immunize as many people as possible, both in urban and rural areas. But its legacy was profound, providing a means for the state to develop new forms of control and of engagement. The book considers the implications of vaccination policies for national governance, from rural health care to Cold War-era programs of medical diplomacy. By embedding Chinese medical history within international currents, the book highlights how and why China became an exemplar of primary health care at a crucial moment in global health policy.Less

Migration in the Time of Revolution: China, Indonesia, and the Cold War

Taomo Zhou

This book examines how two of the world's most populous countries interacted between 1945 and 1967, when the concept of citizenship was contested, political loyalty was in question, identity was ... More

This book examines how two of the world's most populous countries interacted between 1945 and 1967, when the concept of citizenship was contested, political loyalty was in question, identity was fluid, and the boundaries of political mobilization were blurred. The book asks probing questions of this important period in the histories of the People's Republic of China and Indonesia. What was it like to be a youth in search of an ancestral homeland that one had never set foot in, or an economic refugee whose expertise in private business became undesirable in one's new home in the socialist state? What ideological beliefs or practical calculations motivated individuals to commit to one particular nationality while forsaking another? As the book demonstrates, the answers to such questions about “ordinary” migrants are crucial to a deeper understanding of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The book argues that migration and the political activism of the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia were important historical forces in the making of governmental relations between Beijing and Jakarta after World War II. It highlights the agency and autonomy of individuals whose life experiences were shaped by but also helped shape the trajectory of bilateral diplomacy. These ethnic Chinese migrants and settlers were, the book contends, not passively acted upon but actively responding to the developing events of the Cold War. The book bridges the fields of diplomatic history and migration studies by reconstructing the Cold War in Asia as social processes from the ground up.Less

Mobilizing in Uncertainty: Collective Identities and War in Abkhazia

Anastasia Shesterinina

How do ordinary people navigate the intense uncertainty of the onset of war? Different individuals mobilize in different ways — some flee, some pick up arms, and some support armed actors as civil ... More

How do ordinary people navigate the intense uncertainty of the onset of war? Different individuals mobilize in different ways — some flee, some pick up arms, and some support armed actors as civil war begins. Drawing on nearly two hundred in-depth interviews with participants and nonparticipants in the Georgian–Abkhaz war of 1992–1993, this book explores Abkhaz mobilization decisions during that conflict. The book's approach underscores the uncertain nature of the first days of the war when Georgian forces had a preponderance of manpower and arms. It demonstrates, in contrast to explanations that assume individuals know the risk involved in mobilization and make decisions based on that knowledge, that the Abkhaz anticipated risk in ways that were affected by their earlier experiences and by social networks at the time of mobilization. What the book uncovers is that to make sense of the violence, Abkhaz leaders, local authority figures, and others relied on shared understandings of the conflict and their roles in it — collective conflict identities — that they had developed before the war. As appeals travelled across society, people consolidated mobilization decisions within small groups of family and friends and based their actions on which they understood to be threatened. Their decisions shaped how the Georgian–Abkhaz conflict unfolded and how people continued to mobilize during and after the war. Through this detailed analysis of Abkhaz mobilization from pre-war to post-war, the book sheds light on broader processes of violence, which have lasting effects on societies marked by intergroup conflict.Less

More Than Medals: A History of the Paralympics and Disability Sports in Postwar Japan

Dennis J. Frost

How does a small provincial city in southern Japan become the site of a world-famous wheelchair marathon that has been attracting the best international athletes since 1981? This book answers the ... More

How does a small provincial city in southern Japan become the site of a world-famous wheelchair marathon that has been attracting the best international athletes since 1981? This book answers the question and addresses the histories of individuals, institutions, and events — the 1964 Paralympics, the FESPIC Games, the Ōita International Wheelchair Marathon, the Nagano Winter Paralympics, and the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games that played important roles in the development of disability sports in Japan. Sporting events in the postwar era, the book shows, have repeatedly served as forums for addressing the concerns of individuals with disabilities. The book provides new insights on the cultural and historical nature of disability and demonstrates how sporting events have challenged some stigmas associated with disability, while reinforcing or generating others. The book analyzes institutional materials and uses close readings of media, biographical sources, and interviews with Japanese athletes to highlight the profound — though often ambiguous — ways in which sports have shaped how postwar Japan has perceived and addressed disability. The book's novel approach highlights the importance of the Paralympics and the impact that disability sports have had on Japanese society.Less

My Nuclear Nightmare: Leading Japan Through the Fukushima Disaster to a Nuclear-Free Future

Naoto Kan

Jeffrey S. Irish (ed.)

On March 11, 2011, a massive undersea earthquake off Japan's coast triggered devastating tsunami waves that in turn caused meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. ... More

On March 11, 2011, a massive undersea earthquake off Japan's coast triggered devastating tsunami waves that in turn caused meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Ranked with Chernobyl as the worst nuclear disaster in history, Fukushima will have lasting consequences for generations. Until 3.11, Japan's Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, had supported the use of nuclear power. His position would undergo a radical change, however, as Kan watched the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 Power Plant unfold and came to understand the potential for the physical, economic, and political destruction of Japan. This book offers a fascinating day-by-day account of the Prime Minister's actions in the harrowing week after the earthquake struck. He records the anguished decisions he had to make as the scale of destruction became clear and the threat of nuclear catastrophe loomed ever larger—decisions made on the basis of information that was often unreliable. For example, frustrated by the lack of clarity from the executives at Tepco, the company that owned the power plant, Kan decided to visit Fukushima himself, despite the risks, so he could talk to the plant's manager and find out what was really happening on the ground. As the text details, a combination of extremely good fortune and hard work just barely prevented a total meltdown of all of Fukushima's reactor units, which would have necessitated the evacuation of the thirty million residents of the greater Tokyo metropolitan area.Less

Planning for Empire: Reform Bureaucrats and the Japanese Wartime State

Janis Mimura

Japan's invasion of Manchuria in September of 1931 initiated a new phase of brutal occupation and warfare in Asia and the Pacific. It forwarded the project of remaking the Japanese state along ... More

Japan's invasion of Manchuria in September of 1931 initiated a new phase of brutal occupation and warfare in Asia and the Pacific. It forwarded the project of remaking the Japanese state along technocratic and fascistic lines and creating a self-sufficient Asian bloc centered on Japan and its puppet state of Manchukuo. This book traces the origins and evolution of this new order and the ideas and policies of its chief architects, the reform bureaucrats. The reform bureaucrats pursued a radical, authoritarian vision of modern Japan in which public and private spheres were fused, ownership and control of capital were separated, and society was ruled by technocrats. The book shifts our attention away from reactionary young officers to state planners—reform bureaucrats, total war officers, new zaibatsu leaders, economists, political scientists, engineers, and labor party leaders. It shows how empire building and war mobilization raised the stature and influence of these middle-class professionals by calling forth new government planning agencies, research bureaus, and think tanks to draft Five Year industrial plans, rationalize industry, mobilize the masses, streamline the bureaucracy, and manage big business. Examining the political battles and compromises of Japanese technocrats in their bid for political power and Asian hegemony, the book offers a new perspective on Japanese fascism by revealing its modern roots in the close interaction of technology and right-wing ideology.Less

Poppies, Politics, and Power: Afghanistan and the Global History of Drugs and Diplomacy

James Tharin Bradford

This book explores the history of the Afghan drug trade during the 20th century, detailing how, and why, Afghan rulers struggled to balance the benefits of the Afghan drug trade, both legal and ... More

This book explores the history of the Afghan drug trade during the 20th century, detailing how, and why, Afghan rulers struggled to balance the benefits of the Afghan drug trade, both legal and illicit forms, with external pressures to conform to international drug control regimes and more tightly regulate drugs. This book explores why, over time, drug control became a key component of Afghan state formation and diplomacy; by embracing more coercive forms of drug control Afghanistan gained greater access to foreign aid and investment, especially from the United States. And yet, drug control efforts continually failed and the illicit drug trade expanded. This book complicates contemporary analyses of the Afghan drug trade, which depict drugs as juxtaposed with Afghan governance. The longer historical analysis details how the illicit drug trade emerged in response to a series of factors, including coercive forms of drug control, broader policy failures of the Afghan state, as well as, external forces such as the globalization of the illicit drug trade. In this way, drug control, as a component of Afghan governance and diplomacy, was fundamental in shaping the conditions of statelessness and lawlessness that are commonly thought to characterize the Afghan opium industry today.Less