The Impact of the Cold War on the Development of Trade Unionism in Malaya (1948–57)

The geographical term “Southeast Asia” dates from the 1930s, and came to denote a topic for academic studies in the early days of the Cold War. As such, it includes Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indochina, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines. Southeast Asia has become thoroughly incorporated in the global economy over the past 150 years; first, as a producer of commodities, and later, as a supplier of cheap garments and electronic components. Under Dutch colonialism and British hegemony—the latter established by the conquest of Burma and the imposition of free trade on Siam and the Philippines in the 1850s—Southeast Asia was turned into a key provider of commodities for the industrializing countries. During high colonialism, from 1870 to 1930, the region became increasingly intertwined, via Singapore as the central port and through the role of mainland Southeast Asia as the rice basket for the plantations of maritime Southeast Asia. After the Second World War, the region was the world's most violent frontier of containment for communist expansion. In recent decades, Southeast Asia has become integrated in global commodity chains as a producer of cheap industrial goods, often as a subcontractor for more advanced economies, such as those of Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, and later on, Southeast China.

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Legacies of the Cold War in East and Southeast Asia: An Introduction

Hansson

Hewison

Glassman

2020

Journal of Contemporary Asia

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This article introduces the pieces collected in this special issue on the legacies of the Cold War in East and Southeast Asia. Linking to the Journal of Contemporary Asia's 50th Anniversary volume, it examines the origins and conflicts associated with the Cold War in Asia. In this special issue, the authors collectively examine the enduring legacies for the region of US engagements that established a set of politically authoritarian regimes trumpeting anticommunism while promoting American-style capitalism. While the path-dependence of this historical moment has not by itself bequeathed Asia's current crop of authoritarian governments, the authors argue that the current situation cannot be fully understood without reference to Cold War legacies. This introductory article contextualises the pieces in the special issue by providing a broad overview of the variety of Cold War political and economic legacies for the region. It concludes by noting the importance of the kinds of detailed, critical, theoretically informed and empirically rich research that Journal of Contemporary Asia has encouraged since its inception.

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The Impact of the Cold War on the Development of Trade Unionism in Malaya (1948–57)

Cited by 4 publications

References 1 publication

Mixed up in power politics and the Cold War: The Americans, the ICFTU and Singapore's labour movement, 1955–1960

Mixed up in power politics and the Cold War: The Americans, the ICFTU and Singapore's labour movement, 1955–1960

Communism, Cold War and Commodity Chains: Southeast Asian Labor History in a Comparative and Transnational Perspective

Legacies of the Cold War in East and Southeast Asia: An Introduction

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