Case Study : Lao People 's Democratic Republic

In 1950, the Lao Resistant Government was established. The government named its state “Pathet Lao”; however, the state didn’t have its own territory and was protected by the DRV. The Geneva agreement of 1954 gave the PL two provinces, Samnua and Phonsaly, as the “Assembly Area”. In the internationally recognized base, the PL tried to establish the one-party system of Lao People’s

Insurgency in the Revolution and Vietnam Evaluating the strategy used by both the British and the United Stated during the Vietnam War, one can pin the underlying failure for both superior countries on the fact that neither fully understood the true nature of the conflict at hand. This led to unclear political objectives and an ensuing military strategy that relied upon limited use of force to quell each rebellion respectively. To paraphrase LtCol Daly, “military force” should only be advocated for “when the political situation” supports a “decisive military campaign.” This paper will discuss a few examples to compare and contrast the insurgency and counter-insurgency efforts in both conflicts using Mao Tse-tung’s three phases of insurgency. Both the British and the United States were considered the “superpower”, stronger in all facets of national power during each war as compared to the adversary.

Located in Southeast Asia between Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodia was home to one of the bloodiest political regimes to exist in the 20th century. In a country, in which American government reports in 1959 documented, was full of “ ‘docile and passive people…[who] could not be counted on to act in any positive way for the benefit of US aims and policies’”, the United States conflict in neighboring Vietnam brought about incredible changes to an unsuspecting people (qted. in Dunlop 70). The countryside was bombed by the United States in order to uproot suspected North Vietnamese holdouts and supply routes starting in 1969. These bombing raids, which devastated

The history of recent years in the Indochina conflict has been an eventful one. It will exhibit to the eyes of the future student some of the most remarkable instances of a ruthlessness and indifference to common humanity. Moreover, it will, I believe, demonstrate that North Vietnam has, for a long time, steadily pursued a communist regime which was deliberately designed to produce a subjugation of other countries by the threat of communism.

Laos has been receiving help from China, Vietnam and Thailand for political and investment reasonings. In an interview, Keith Barney, who

Laos People’s Democratic Republic is a country in the Southeastern portion Asia. It is believed that Laotians migrated to Laos from South China as early as the 8th century. Lan Xang was the very first state established in the country during the 14th century. The ruler at the time, King Saya Setthathirat transferred the capital known as Luang Prabang to the newly formed Vientiane during the 16th century (“Brief History of Laos”). The Lan Xang kingdom was in decree until the early 1700s. From that point on, the Kingdom was split into 3 separate kingdoms under 3 different yet hostile dynasties. The 17th Century marked the Golden Age under the rule of King Suliyavongsa. It was during this time that the king established a good trade relation

The economy is known as a new emerging economy especially after entering WTO in 2007. The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has increase considerably and the GDP is over 8% in the period of three years (2005-2007). Nonetheless, it is clear that the economic instability occurs after WTO accession of Vietnam 1 year. Consequently, the economy has suffered surging inflation as well as trade and fiscal deficit. (Figure 1)

Through Ara Wilson’s detailing of her exploration of Bangkok in her ethnography “The Intimate Economies of Bangkok”, I was able to become an observer of the meshing of the native culture that already existed in Bangkok with the Western culture that has been spreading into the nation for many years. Typically the concept of cultural homogenization discusses an extremely skewed power dynamic in which one regional culture (typically one that exists in countries that have been classified as developing) is taken over and dissembled by the presence of the prevalent Western culture. From Wilson’s account, I find that economies in Bangkok are not so much experiencing a homogenization, but a merging of different cultures which keeps the elements of

As a strategy for rural development, the government of Lao PDR encouraged the resettlement of villages with the idea that the resettlement would allow the government to provide services more cost effectively than traveling to the mountainous communities as had been done in the past. Post-Cold War, rural Lao PDR where the ethnic minorities resided was

One of the premier Baltic States, Latvia is a rather small country with a population of 2.5 million located in Northern Europe. For the latter half of the 20th Century it was under the control of the Soviet Union, however, it broke free after the collapse of the Soviet Union and declared independence on August 21st, 1991. Following its independence, it experiences rapid economic growth, and to further establish themselves in the global marketplace Latvia pegged its currency, the lat, to the value of the euro as it had recently joined the European Union in 2004. However, Latvia was not able to sustain this rapid economic growth, and it only was a matter of time before the expansion would transform into a crisis. This case displays how pegging currencies, influxes change in foreign money and investment, and the purpose of the IMF all affected the market economy.

During the late 1990s, the world, especially Asia, faced economic crisis. In May, 1997, Thailand was hit especially hard. Due to multiple factors, foreign investors decided to pull their money out of the Thai economy causing the Thai government to eventually devalue their currency (Laplamwanit, 1999). This paper is not focused on what caused the crisis; rather, it examines the actions the International Monetary Fund (IMF) took in attempting to help Thailand recover from its disaster as well as the unfortunate consequences of doing so.

1. There are two types of theoretical perspectives that will be used in this essay to analyze the presence of unexploded ordinances (UXOs) in Laos (Starin, 2010, p. 3). The social-conflict perspective is described by Macionis (2009) as one that “sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change” (p. 13). There are several different conflict approaches; all these approaches are centered on the inequalities but each uses a different class and lens to describe the inequality taking place. The varieties of conflict perspectives are: gender, race, and social. Although any conflict approach could be applied in this case, this essay will take the social-conflict approach defined previously. This

Despite its size and strategic location, Myanmar is also the poorest country in the region, with around one quarter of its population estimated to be living in poverty. From 1962 to 2011, the country was ruled by a military junta that suppressed almost all dissent and wielded absolute power in the face of international condemnation and sanctions. In

is not being fought with soldiers and tanks; rather, it is being fought and won with businessmen and free-trade. This new on-slot of foreign business in the formerly closed country have completely rejuvenated the Vietnamese economy. For the first time since the re-unification of Vietnam in 1976, the doors of the market place are opened to the outside world and Vietnam is aggressively taking a stance for further economic development.

She claims that the “Progress has indeed been uneven, with most gains occurring in economically vibrant India and China — which together represent 46 percent of the developing world's population. Achievements in eradicating poverty and hunger, for instance, have been due largely to rapid improvements in East Asia” (Kurtzleben).