The campaign in and evacuation of Burma

A History of the Crusades. Vol. III. By Steven Runciman. Cambridge University Press. 1954. Pp. 530; 15 plates, 5 maps and genealogical table. 35s.

The Persian Gulf. By Sir Arnold T. Wilson, with a foreword by the Rt. Hon. L. S. Amery. George Allen and Unwin. London. 1954. Pp. x + 313. 25s.

The Men who Ruled India (the Guardians). By Philip Woodruff. London: Jonathan Cape. Pp. 385, including bibliographical and source notes, appendices, index, 5 maps and 8 illustrations. 8½” × 5½”. 25s.

Within the Taurus. A Journey in Asiatic Turkey. By Lord Kinross. London: John Murray. Pp. 182; 21 illustrations and sketch‐map. 18s.

In the Shadow of the Mahatma. By G. D. Birla. Longmans, Green. Pp. 331. 10s. 6d.

World Without Mercy. The Story of the Sahara. By René Lecler. London: Werner Laurie. 1954. Pp. 223; 13 illustrations, sketch‐map, bibliography. 15s.

The Middle East. Royal Institute of International Affairs. London. 1954. 2nd Edition. Pp. 590 + xviii; 2 maps, bibliography. 35s.

Middle East Dilemmas. By J. C. Hurewitz. New York: Harper Brothers. 1953. Pp. 273 + viii; endpaper map.

The Arab World. By N. Izzedin. Chicago: H. Regnery Company. 1953. Pp. 412 + xii; 19 illustrations. $6.50.

Call to Greatness. By Adlai E. Stevenson. London: Rupert Hart‐Davis. 1954. Pp. 100. 9s. 6d.

The Upanishads. A second selection, translated by Swami Nikhilananda. London : Ph?nix House. Pp. 381. 4to. 18s.

Moslems on the March. By F. W. Fernau. Translated from the German by E. W. Dickes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1954. Pp. xi + 312 and index. $5.00.

The Wonder that was India. A Survey of the Culture of the Indian Sub‐Continent before the Coming of the Muslims. By A. L. Basham, B.A., Ph.D., F.R.A.S. Sidgwick and Jackson. Pp. xxi + 586. Illustrated with pictures, line drawings and maps. 45s.

The East India Company and the Economy of Bengal from 1704 to 1740. By Sukumar Bhattacharya. Luzac and Co. Pp. 240. Maps and appendices. 21s. (cloth).

Warren Hastings. By Keith Feiling. Macmillan. 1954. Pp. xi + 420. 8¾” × 6½”. 30s.

Big Tiger and Christian. By Fritz Mühlenweg. Jonathan Cape. Pp. 558. Illustrated. 15s.

Persia is my Heart. By Najmeh Najafi. Gollancz. Pp. 245. Illustrated. 13s. 6d.

A Village in Anatolia. By Mahmut Makal. Translated by Sir Wyndham Deedes. Valentine Mitchell and Co. 1954. Pp. 208. Illustrated. 18s.

No Ten Commandments. Life in the Indian Police. By S. T. Hollins, C.I.E. Hutchinson. 1954. Pp. 304. 8½” × 5¾”. 16s.

Nanga Parbat. By Dr. Karl Herrligkoffer. Elek Books Ltd. London. Pp. 254; 8 colour plates, 55 monochrome plates, 5 sketch maps and diagrams. 9” × 5½”. 25s.

Growing up in an Egyptian Village. By Hamed Ammar, M.A., Ph.D. Rout‐ledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd. 1954. Pp. 299. 28s.

The Temple Tiger and more Maneaters of Kumnon. By Jim Corbett. Oxford Unversity Press. 1954. Pp. 197. 8” × 5¼”. 12s. 6d.

Afghanistan (Ancient Aryana). By A. Rahman Pazhwak, of the Afghan Bureau of Information. Key Press, 194, Portland Road, Hove. 1954. Pp. 81. With coloured portrait of H.M. Zahir Shah, 2 maps and 66 excellent illustrations. 9½” × 7”. No price.     

Burma,China and the Myth of Military Bases

Abstract

Since the advent of a new, more outward-looking military government in 1988, Burma has come to occupy a position of considerable importance in the Asia-Pacific strategic environment. Burma's burgeoning relationship with China has attracted particular attention, not least because of the stream of reports in the news media and, to a lesser extent, academic literature, claiming that China has established several naval bases and intelligence collection stations in Burma. This apparent intrusion by China into the northeast Indian Ocean has strongly influenced the strategic perceptions and policies of Burma's regional neighbors, notably India. The reported facilities have also been cited as evidence that Burma has become a client state of China, and as proof of Beijing's expansionist designs in South and Southeast Asia. A close examination of the available evidence, however, suggests that there are no Chinese military bases on Burmese soil, a fact conceded by senior Indian officials in 2005. China still has a strong strategic interest in developing its bilateral relations with Burma but, based on this analysis, it would appear that China's presence in Burma, and its current influence over Burma's military regime, have been greatly exaggerated.     

Precarity and Political Immobilisation: Migrants from Burma in Chiang Mai,Thailand

An estimated 1.5 million citizens of Burma reside as refugees or migrants in Thailand, where harsh treatment, harassment and social stigmas contribute to a climate of precarity. Although one possible course of action for any community under strain is political mobilisation, for migrants from Burma in the northern city of Chiang Mai, high degrees of exploitation and insecurity have generated an overwhelming disinterest in political issues. The article examines this relationship in five main sections. The first presents the two key concepts that structure the analysis: precarity and political mobilisation. The second examines the context of migration from Burma to Thailand, focusing both on the climate of unrest found in much of Burma and on Thailand's treatment of migrant workers, its non-participation in core international legislation and its sub-standard migrant registration system. The third explains how this study of Burmese migrants in Chiang Mai was undertaken and reviews the ethical considerations required in a study of vulnerable groups. The fourth documents the study's findings and presents migrants' testimony. The fifth seeks to explain the link between precarity and political passivity in this case, and considers the wider implications. The concluding section restates the core finding.     

ASEAN's Albatross: ASEAN's Burma Policy,from Constructive Engagement to Critical Disengagement

Abstract

Following the abortive “Saffron Revolution” of autumn 2007, Burma's ASEAN partners were subject to the timeworn criticism that the grouping persistently fails to act against its pariah member due to its near-religious adherence to the norm of non-interference. Conversely, this paper argues that ASEAN's policy towards Burma has never been one of strict non-interference, but has always been premised on the claim that ASEAN can encourage political change there. Moreover, the non-interference principle has come under increasing pressure since the Asian financial crisis. The article tracks the evolution of ASEAN's policy, from the adoption of constructive engagement in 1988, through the gradual frustration of ASEAN's designs, to its present position of critical disengagement, arguing ASEAN's failure to take a stronger line has less to do with any binding “norms” than with the interests of the region's predominantly illiberal elites and the grouping's increasing difficulties in achieving meaningful consensus.

We don't set out to change the world and our neighbors. We don't believe in it. The culture of ASEAN is that we do not interfere.

(Goh Chok Tong, Prime Minister of Singapore, 1992) ¹ 1. “Myanmar's Monsters,” The Economist, February 29, 1992. All newspaper and magazine references sourced from www.lexisnexis.com except where otherwise indicated.

ASEAN is trying to democratize Myanmar.

(Nguyen Dy Nien, Foreign Minister of Vietnam, 2004) ² 2. “Japan, Vietnam, EU agree to find ways to resolve ASEM row,” Kyodo, July 2, 2004.

Public health in Burma: Anatomy of a crisis

Burma has been ruled by a military government since 1962. A steady deterioration in public health standards has accompanied such rule, with a particularly marked decline following the crushing of the pro-democracy movement in that country in 1988. This article draws attention to a number of aspects of this decline and the growing precariousness of the overall public health system. As it will be suggested, primary responsibility for this state of decay should be borne by the military regime. Through several policies and practices, the military has severely compromised the functioning of the public health system and perverted it in ways that fulfill its narrow political interests, rather than those of the nation as a whole. The article concludes by emphasizing the urgent need for a reinstatement of democratic norms and institutions in Burma, so that the nation's public health needs may be meaningfully addressed and a looming humanitarian disaster averted.     

The Mixed Temporalities of Transnationalism in Dreams of Speaking

This article explores the mixed temporalities inherent in Gail Jones’s treatment of transnational grief in Dreams of Speaking (2006). I examine the novel’s interests in modernity and temporality and show how the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, in the novel, creates grief that is shared across national boundaries. The novel explores the coexistence of the modern and the unmodern, and Jones exemplifies this in the spectral nature of grief; it haunts the two protagonists throughout Dreams of Speaking. This article reads the coexistence of modernity and the unmodern alongside the ways in which Japan unsettles Eurocentric notions of colonial modernity (with its insistence on shared temporalities of progress) by having been a colonial power as well as by undertaking substantial modernisation in the postwar period. I employ Harry Harootunian’s notion of “mixed temporalities” to show the transnational dimensions in the cross-cultural interaction this novel facilitates. I compare the novel’s treatment of the bomb, and of temporality, to Salvador Dalí’s The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1954) and highlight the transnational sentiments in Jones’s treatments of the tropes of water and resonance.