post-Cold War Research Articles

Indonesia and the Third Indochina War: The End of Containment

Abstract The Third Indochina War called forth dramatic changes in the international relations of Southeast Asia. Foremost among these changes was a shift in the geopolitical orientation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (asean). The organization’s founders established asean in 1967 to contain Chinese influence in Southeast Asia. But in the wake of the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in late 1978, asean forged a tacit alliance with the People’s Republic of China to pursue a campaign of rollback against Vietnam. This article argues that asean’s volte-face and China’s reentry into networks of regional diplomacy depended upon a shift in Indonesian threat perceptions. As political Islam displaced Chinese communism as the key threat fixating Indonesian policy, the Suharto regime abandoned its longstanding attempts to integrate Vietnam into the architecture of regional order and instead accommodated itself to a Thai-led effort to enlist China as a counterweight against Vietnam. The reorientation of Indonesian diplomacy reveals the dynamics of a phenomenon that anthropologist Heonik Kwon has called the “decomposition” of the Cold War – the geographically and temporally uneven erosion of the Cold War as a social reality and the gradual elaboration of a post-Cold War era.

Generations, Contemporaneity, and Intersectionality in Literary History

"Generations, Contemporaneity, and Intersectionality in Literary History. While several traditional concepts of literary history, including literary periods, periodization itself, and genre, have been recently put into question and reframed in transnational, cross-temporal, and transdisciplinary ways, the notion of generation has received much less attention. At the same time, in various branches of cultural studies, and even more prominently in sociology, the problem of generations has taken center stage once again. In this article, the critic takes as her departure point Mihai Iovănel’s 2021 History of Contemporary Romanian Literature: 1990-2020 to discuss how the generational operator could be employed in post-Cold War literary history. Mironescu argues that a transversal and intersectional integration of generation into contemporary literary criticism could ensure a better understanding of intra- and transgenerational dynamics in terms of self-representations and group narratives, inclusions and exclusions, as well as gender and literary affiliations. Keywords: generation, generationality, literary history, postcommunism, intersectionality"

India in World Affairs During the Last 75 Years: A Reflective Commentary

This article is a brief summary of the role played by India in World affairs from the times of Jawaharlal Nehru to the present. The section on the Nehru era also covers in nut shell the role played by the Indian National Congress on global issues, showing how it differed from the Britsh Indian interests. The Nehru and Indira eras were marked by a strong commitment to globa and third world issues, which declined relatively in the post-Cold War era. It looks like some of it is being rediscovered by the present regime, though a definitive judgement awaits as we are close to the developments as they unfold themselves, despite some of the negative images of India being projected in the international media regarding its handling of some domestic issues. Keywords: Nonalignment, Anti­colonialism, Anti­imperialism, national security, nuclear disarmament

A Brief Analysis of Conflict Intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War

Since the post–Cold War era to the current development of world multi-polarization, the global society has maintained a situation of overall peace, ease and stability, but local wars, turbulence and tension, among which conflict intervention has increasingly become a hot issue. Rather than being a conventional form of confrontation just involving the two sides, a conflict will always involve third-party actors such as great powers and international institutions. This article aims to illustrate the most appropriate role for international actors in a conflict society through analyzing the intervention case in the Sri Lankan Civil War while referencing some arguments about international norms and morality.

Convergence of Military Expenditure per Capita in NATO Countries: Evidence from Nahar-Inder Convergence Tests

NATO üyesi ülkeler arasındaki yük paylaşımı tartışmalarının, soğuk savaş sonrası dönemden günümüze kadar gelen süreçte, uluslararası konjonktürdeki değişikliklere bağlı olarak, çeşitli dönemlerde ve farklı yoğunluklarda gündeme geldiği görülmektedir. Bu çerçevede ilgili ampirik literatürde, özellikle NATO üyesi ülkelerin askeri harcama düzeyleri için yakınsama davranışının araştırıldığı çalışmalar önemli bir yer kaplamaktadır. Bu çalışmada, 1960-2020 yıllarını kapsayan dönemde NATO ülkelerinde kişi başı askeri harcamaları açısından stokastik yakınsamanın varlığı, Nahar-Inder(2002) yakınsama testi yaklaşımı ile araştırılmaktadır. Nahar ve Inder (2002) yakınsama testi, genel olarak aynı davranış biçimine sahip örneklem içerisinde, farklı hareket eden ülkeleri belirlemeye imkan sağlayan polinom tipi bir test olarak ifade edilmektedir. Nahar ve Inder (2002) yakınsama testi ayrıca, incelenen serilerin durağan olmaması durumunda bile çıktı farklılıklarının yakınsama davranışı sergileyebileceğini göstermektedir. Çalışmada, örneklem içi hareketliliği ayrıştırmayı sağlayan zaman serisi analizine dayalı Nahar-Inder (2002) testi kullanılarak elde edilen bulgular, inceleme döneminde örneklemde bulunan Belçika, Portekiz ve Norveç hariç diğer 13 ülkenin örneklem ortalamasına doğru yakınsama davranışı içerisinde olduğunu göstermektedir.

The growing importance of economic security in the new paradigm. Towards a new definition of economic security

The contemporary world is undergoing profound processes of change, many of them unprecedented in terms of the scale on which they occur and their content or effects. In such a troubled context, the issue of security is becoming more acute by the day. All these changes involving a multidimensional security environment have generally become more acute with the (at least apparent or provisional) end of the Cold War. In that context, the bipolar world disintegrated in a very short space of time, the global security environment was suddenly unsupported and the balance of power was upset. The post-Cold War world needed a new global balance of power, but this was slow to emerge and the state of conflict in the international environment grew more and more tense. Alongside the classic challenges to (inter)national security, new problems have emerged, such as the demographic explosion, the increasingly bleak prospect of a global food crisis, worsening social problems of all kinds, mass migration, the growth of terrorism and new forms of terrorist action (most recently with the possibility of using unconventional weapons from the NBC spectrum), the emergence of global climate change and a whole host of other effects from all these phenomena. Thus, security concerns have become ever greater as traditional security paradigms have collapsed one by one.

Russia’s war with Ukraine and Russia’s revisionism on the international stage

Russia’s armed conflict with Ukraine, ongoing since 2014, has created conditions for Russia to revise the balance of power in Eastern Europe, and even the international order established after the Cold War. The aim of this article is firstly to show Ukraine, in a highly synthetic way, as a state at a crossroads but simultaneously a key state in terms of Russia’s interests in the post-Soviet area, then the motives for Russia’s redrawing the post-Cold War international order, taking into account the location and role of Ukraine. The article merely indicates the problem of research, and does not claim the right to comprehensively cover the issue in question.

The ghost of Hernán Cortés: the colonial heritage in the Americas in the Cold War and post-Cold War era

In this article I explore a range of approaches to the colonial heritage (or colonial heritages) in the Americas in both their popular and academic iterations during the Cold War and the post-Cold War era. Overall, I argue that the most obvious elements of the Hispanic colonial heritage are cultural and linguistic, as well as various forms of economic dependence and high levels of socio-economic inequality. Economic dependence and social inequality remain a central, if now diffuse, Hispanic colonial heritage, as does the diverse cultural and linguistic post-colonial milieu that is the New World. Over three decades out from the end of the Cold War, the cultural complexity, shifting economic contours and geographical diffusion of the Hispanic colonial heritage is more apparent than ever at the same time as (contrary to several recent accounts) it hangs no heavier over the present than the Anglo-Protestant colonial heritage; nor should either be deployed to do too much heavy lifting as far as explaining contemporary developmental outcomes is concerned.

How not to deal with a rising China: a US perspective

Abstract Will China displace the United States as the world's leading power by the centenary of Communist rule in 2049? The outcome will depend on many unknowns including what the two countries do over the next three decades. US leaders are likely to rely on their mental maps of how the world works. The primary sources of their mental maps tend to come from historical analogies and from international relations theories. Both are highly imperfect representations of reality. Historical metaphors and analogies are rife in the debate over how to understand the current rise of China, but three are particularly salient: a Thucydides trap; a new Cold War; and 1914 sleepwalkers. This article discusses the merits and demerits of relying on each of these analogies in turn, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of prior mental maps that guided US policy-makers during the post-Cold War era. Chinese elites expect to replace the US as the leading global power by 2049. How should the US respond? Two prevalent historical analogies are misleading: a Thucydides trap about power transition, and a new Cold War that ignores the three-dimensional nature of US–China interdependence. More promising is the cautionary narrative of sleepwalking into the First World War. A successful strategy must lay out conditions for a cooperative rivalry starting with a careful net assessment of power resources and the formulation of feasible goals.

The Young Finns Party and the Plan for Neoliberal Retasking of the Welfare State in Post-Cold War Finland

This article provides a perspective on liberal political thought in post-Cold War Finland by examining the small Young Finns party. Their political philosophy emphasised individualism against collectivism and criticised Finland's state-centred political culture. Special focus is on the party's ideas of reforming the Finnish welfare state. The Young Finns wanted to retain universal education and healthcare services but pursued radical tax, social security and labour market reforms with ideas inspired by neoliberal thinkers. The article argues that the Young Finns represented a Finnish variant of neoliberalism in their goal of retasking the welfare state into a slimmer enabler of individual freedom.

Editor's Note

Editor's Note

From circulating liberalism to tech nationalism: U.S. soft power and Silicon Valley

ABSTRACT The global internet was originally shoe-horned into making a U.S.-led international order in the post-Cold War. Soft power enthusiasts and the early architects of the global internet worked closely to turn global connectivity into a civilizing mission. Around the 2010s, the State Department embraced ‘internet freedom’ as a soft power strategy when U.S. dominance was challenged by global and regional counter-hegemons. I argue that the ‘tech Cold War’ is not new. But the emerging narrative aims to bolster thereputation of the U.S. government and the tech industry’s corporate power,thereby hoping to restore U.S. leadership in internet governance.

Neoliberal conflict and ‘democratic peace’: The post-cold war crisis

ABSTRACT This article conducts a comprehensive analysis of the inadequacy of the neoliberal peace theory, a derivative of the democratic peace theory, in its endeavour to establish global stability. Drawing upon case studies from the First Gulf War, the Balkans, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Northern Triangle of Central America, it becomes evident that the ambitions of the neoliberal peace framework have consistently fallen short of their objectives. These practical instances underscore the inherent constraints and oversimplifications of the theory when addressing the intricate dynamics within international relations. This article highlights the multifaceted nature of the pursuit of global peace and calls for the reassessment and adaptation of the neoliberal peace theory to align with the requirements of the contemporary world. The efficacy of neoliberal initiatives in promoting peace is evaluated, shedding light on their limitations. Additionally, the article explores lack of a direct correlation between regime type and peace by citing the failure of neoliberal peace in the context of illiberal trends with in democracies. Neoliberal trapping of liberal democratic peace theory, which turns out to be an inevitable crisis in peace building is discussed, scrutinising the instigation, exacerbation, and perpetuation of conflicts in the post- cold war era using the indicators of democratisation, economic interdependence and international organisations.

‘Runaway’ foreign film productions from a global South perspective: film workers’ memories and site-specific traces from Thailand

ABSTRACT This article explores the subject known in the Anglophone context as ‘runaway’ film productions through examining records by peripheral film workers and the legacy associated with a specific film location in Thailand. Considering the post-Cold War period when ‘foreign’ filmmaking had just taken off and the more recent (post)-COVID-19 labour movement within the country, the article proposes a revisit to film production history via a consideration of on-the-fringe paratexts, sporadically circulated in the public domain, as a way to explore discourses associated with this kind of transnational film productions. The article draws on two key written records associated with the making of The Killing Fields (1984) namely a set diary by the late Sompol Sungkawess, a writer/translator who worked as a local assistant director for the film; and a published monologue by the late Spalding Gray, a playwright/performer who took a minor role in the movie. By conducting a ‘palimpsestuous reading’ of these accounts along with various site-specific traces, the article explores past and present conditions and practices with the aim to project alternative imaginaries of transnational screen service industry from a global South standpoint.

AN ANALYSIS OF POLAND AND HUNGARY AS EXAMPLES OF MEHTER DEMOCRATIZATION

With the end of the Cold War, the effort to exist in the international system has revealed the need to accelerate the democratization process and create new political structures by internalizing Western systems. The formation of democracy and modernization in societies belongs to different realities of political cultures. This does not mean that every state will advance the democratization process linearly because of the cyclical changes, and the political culture codes and Cultural structures of that country. This study examines the post-Cold War Poland and Hungary, while focusing developments and constitutional steps in the democratization process. The change in the historical process experienced by the two countries will be examined in the post-Cold War era and will be explained through the mehter democratization conceptualization. The study assumes that the adoption of democracy and the progress called democracy is not suitable for uniformization. On the contrary, it establishes a structure knitted with differences. In this respect, as a different conceptualization, Mehter democratization was chosen.

Aid Imperium: United States Foreign Policy and Human Rights in Post-Cold War Southeast Asia. By Salvador Santino F. RegilmeJr . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2021. 294p. $80.00 cloth.

Aid Imperium: United States Foreign Policy and Human Rights in Post-Cold War Southeast Asia. By Salvador Santino F. RegilmeJr . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2021. 294p. $80.00 cloth. - Volume 20 Issue 3

U.S. INDO–PACIFIC STRATEGY: THE UTILIZATION OF THE U.S.– AUSTRALIA MILITARY ALLIANCE AS PART OF THE U.S. BALANCE OF POWER STRATEGY TO RESPOND TO CHINA INFLUENCE IN INDO–PACIFIC REGION

<p>One of the U.S. intentions in Indo–Pacific is to counter a new rising giant of China. The U.S. government has recognized China as a competitive actor. An effort to promote U.S. security interests in the Indo–Pacific region serves as an option to safeguard their national interest. The U.S. alliance network is considered one of the most lasting and successful parts of U.S. Foreign Policy since World War II. The member of its alliance has adapted to several changes in international events, including in the post-Cold War era, the rivalry tended to be centered between two major powers. Australia is not the exception. Several bilateral and multilateral approaches to implementing its Mutual Defense Treaty have been integrated and enhanced. This study aims to elaborate on the U.S.–Australia Military Alliance as part of the U.S. Balance of Power Strategy to respond to China's Influence in Indo-Pacific Region. The study will use an explanatory research method by explaining rather than describing the studied phenomena that depart from the qualitative approach. In the end, the study concludes that the U.S. is actively involved with Australia as its military alliance through ANZUS, the Quad, and AUKUS; those all considered the effort encountered by the U.S. to respond to China's Influence in the Indo–Pacific Region</p>

민주화운동과 통일운동의 공유 가치: 탈냉전적 민족주의 통합노력

In the 2020s, the Korean Peninsula seems to have further alienated its desire for peaceful reunification due to the North Korean nuclear threat that has continued for the past 20 years. However, clues can be found to solve this crisis in the history of the last democratization movements, which have always pursued a unification movement with the change of dictatorship. This paper examines the nationalist ideal that has always accompanied Korea's democratization efforts, identifies the connection between the democratization movement and the unification movement, and presents contemporarily significant points based on the results. For the purpose of this study, the researcher introduces the traditional security view that has relied on military power by considering the South Korean people's sense of unification in the midst of the North Korean nuclear crisis in the 2020s and the realist opinion that leads the cause and feasibility of unification on economical terms. In addition, this research examines the pattern of the post-Cold War nationalist integration spirit that appeared in the unification movement process after the democratization movement, and highlights the connection point of the two major movements and their value of the time. This study has found that students and citizens who participated in the pro-democracy movement argued for nationalistic ideals against foreign intervention while resisting the authoritarian government's suppression of the pro-democracy movement in the name of the US-backed anti-communist line. This research is significant in that it emphasizes that continuous democracy practice is a key element of security in addition to military power by linking the two major movements ideologically.

베트남전쟁 미군의 성폭행에 대한 팩션적 재현방식과 담론화 가치

U.S. media and contents based on the Vietnam War have focused mainly on the political aspects of the Cold War era after the Second World War and the post-Cold War era in the 1990s, but little has been said about the frequent U.S. soldiers' sexual assault against Vietnamese women. This paper examines the way the faction literature and movies related to the Vietnam War reproduce sexual violence by the U.S. military and discusses whether it is worth discussing the phenomenon of wartime sexual violence on terms of social science. To this end, I examine the contents reproduced by the style of 'faction' through literature data describing sexual assault by the U.S. military, and explore whether the reproduction method can be discussed politically based on William Timothy O'Brien's experience and perception. In addition, in the conclusion, a practical methodology is presented to convey precious lessons of international pacifism to future generations. As a result, it is emphasized that this genre of faction can present the direction of international efforts to realize true peace with various dynamics that can discourse this issue tinged by a style of social science research with sexual assault-related facts and sensitivity-stimulating fiction. This paper will invite more follow-up studies in that it is a new attempt to explore whether the factional reproduction elements of Vietnam War-related works, which could have been understood mainly by interest, can be analyzed socially and scientifically.

알프레드 T. 마한의 지정학적 위협인식 및 대외정책론과 20세기 초 미국 대외정책의 변화

China’s rapid rise since the 2010s threatens a global hegemony of the United States, which seemed to become a permanent superpower after the post-Cold War following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Just like the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, China is building an aggressive foreign policy and a strong naval force to support it. The U.S. is also making various efforts to counter the rise of China and to deter the challenge of hegemony. The U.S. efforts and grand strategic origins in the Asia- Pacific region were the geopolitical threat perception and foreign policy theory of Alfred T. Mahan, one of America’s leading maritime geopolitical scholars and maritime strategists. Although the specific form and method have changed little by little according to the changes of the times, it is true that the actual grand strategic essence has not changed significantly in the early 20th century or in the modern era beyond the 2020s. Therefore, the Republic of Korea, which takes the R.O.K-U.S. alliance as the basis of national security, should pay attention to Mahan's perception of geopolitical threat and foreign policy theory in its historical essence in order to accurately and soberly recognize the grand strategic origins of U.S. foreign policy. Through this, we will be able to get a little closer to what the fundamental grand strategic origins of the U.S. are and what their essence is, beyond the simple recognition of the current status quo of the U.S. foreign policy.