[Tlc] FW: H-SEASIA: CFP - Reassessing the Origins of the Cold War in SEA (10-11 July 2008, Singapore)

[Michael Montesano]

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Subject: H-SEASIA: CFP - Reassessing the Origins of the Cold War in SEA
(10-11 July 2008, Singapore)

*

From: Geoff Wade <arigpw at nus.edu.sg >
Date: Aug 25, 2007 6:25 PM

**Reassessing the Origins of the Cold War in Southeast Asia: *

*A Roundtable on the Sixtieth Anniversary of 1948 *

* *

*Date:              10-11 July 2008 *

*Venue:           Asia Research Institute, National University of
Singapore
*

* *

2008 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the beginning of Left-wing
insurgencies in Malaya, Indonesia, Burma and the Philippines:
insurgencies which continue to leave their imprint on the region today.
On this historic occasion, we invite scholars to gather to discuss in
what ways 1948 was - or perhaps was not - 'the beginning of the Cold
War' in Southeast Asia; and to debate the significance of this year in
Southeast Asian history.



The Cold War in Europe is often thought to have begun early after World
War II, with the formation of the Cominform and the publication of
Zhdanov's two-camp doctrine in 1947, or even with the 1945 Yalta
Conference which signalled a Soviet sphere in Eastern Europe.  For
Eastern Asia, many authorities are inclined to place the key turning
points later, with events such as the establishment of the People's R
epublic of China in 1949 and the beginning of the Korean War in 1950. So
here we have two very different dates for the beginning of the Cold War.



Southeast Asia is different again. The crucial events seem to fit
neither the early European dates, nor the later East Asian dates. In
this region, it
is hard to ignore 1948 as the parting of the ways.   What is
indisputable is
that after 1945 the British, French and Dutch all tried to restore their
power in Southeast Asia, and all met resistance from Leftist
organisations.
By 1947, there was evidence of Russia's growing interest in Southeast
and East Asia, and in 1948 the Soviet Union opened an embassy in
Bangkok. A wide range of groups such as the World Federation of
Democratic Youth and the International Union of Students sent
delegations to tour Asia. The years
1947 and 1948 also saw a plethora of As ia-linked Leftist gatherings,
including the World Youth Festival at Prague (1947), and the Empire
Communist Conference (1947). Shortly after the first copies of the
Cominform newspaper, carrying Zhdanov's "two camps" assessment of the
international situation, arrived in Asia, there were held in Calcutta
the South East Asia Youth and Student Conference (February 1948), and
the Second Party Congress of the Communist Party of India (Feb/Mar
1948).



How far did all these events feed on common origins, of whatever kind?
In 1958, Ruth McVey argued that what mattered for the 1948 uprisings was
not the Calcutta Conferences, but the gradual d issemination of the
change in the international communist line from September 1947, and
since then historians have pointed to the interplay of a wide range of
factors, some stressing local factors, others international ones.



Recent debates, especially that between Deery and Hack over the or igins
of the "Malayan Emergency", as well as claims by the Communist Party of
Malaya's Secretary-General Chin Peng that it was British pressure which
led to the uprising in Malaya have brought these issues of the origins
of the "Cold War" in Southeast Asia to the fore again.



This Roundtable will therefore examine questions such as:



*                     Did 1948 constitute a watershed in Southeast Asian
history?

*                     When and how did a 'Southeast Asian Cold War'
coalesce?

*                     What do individual studies of the Cold War in
Indonesia, Indochina, Malaya, Myanmar, Singapore and the Philippines
suggest of its origins?

*                     How far did the changes in Southeast Asia overlap
with
those in Europe and East Asia, or how did they display 'autonomous'
features?

*                     What sort of interconnections existed within the
region?

*                     What links were there with the Soviet Union, East
Asia, Western Europe and Australia?

*                     Were there common discourses, orders or
understandings
which drove events?

*                     After 60 years of division, can the conflicting
perceptions of the events of 1948 be bridged by balanced scholarship?



For this Roundtable, we thus seek new documentary data and new
interpretations, wh ich will, we hope, allow a balanced assessment of
1948 as a moment in the development of Southeast Asian history. All
papers should reference this date, though some may suggest other dates
as being of equal or greater significance. Paper proposals are invited
by 15 October 2007, in the form of a 500-word abstract and a 200-word
biographical note on the author.



Funding will be available to accepted paper-presenters from the
Southeast Asian region, and part-funding for those based in developed
countries.



*Convenors:*



Anthony Reid, Asia Research Institute, Singapore

Karl Hack, Open University, U.K.

Geoff Wade, Asia Research Institute, Singapore





Expressions of interest should be directed to:



Ms Rina Yap

Senior Administrative Officer

Asia Research Institute,

National University of Singapore

#10-01 Tower Block,

469A Bukit Timah Road

Singapore 259770
Email: ariymjr at nus.edu.sg


* *

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