Cold War Asia
A Visual History of Global Diplomacy
Published on 6. February 2025
Book
Hardback
249 pages
978-1-009-37961-8 (ISBN)
Description
This innovative, interdisciplinary and international collection of essays offers fresh perspectives on the history of global diplomacy. Experts in history, international relations, art history and performance art have come together to examine a series of visual sources relating to Asia's role in global diplomacy during the Cold War. They explore how leaders, including Indonesia's Sukarno, the Philippines' Imelda Marcos and Thailand's King Bhumibol, exploited the symbolic value of diplomacy to emphasise their agency in relationships with Great Powers. These case studies demonstrate the significance of Asian diplomacy in understanding the Cold War, shifting away from the use of 'war' as the dominant criterion for analysis of the region. Cold War Asia sheds critical light onto how culture shapes international relations, widening the lens of analysis to embed the role of gender, religion, and ethnicity, as well as the material world, into our understanding of diplomacy.
Reviews / Votes
'This volume presents a collection of concise and effective contributions by a diverse group of scholars and practitioners who bring to life symbolic moments and everyday manifestations of diplomacy through refreshing and expansive readings of more and less iconic photographs of the Cold War in Southeast Asia. A key reading for anyone interested in exploring the relationship between images and the politics they represent, project, and keep hidden.' Chiara Formichi, Cornell UniversityMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
521 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-009-37961-8 (9781009379618)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Matthew Phillips is a diplomat based in Bangkok. Naoko Shimazu is a global historian of Asia and Professor at Tokyo College, International Institute for Advanced Study, University of Tokyo.
Content
List of illustrations; List of contributors; Acknowledgements; Introduction: visual sources and diplomacy Matthew Phillips and Naoko Shimazu; 1. Reframing non-alignment: Tito, Sukarno and the 1961 Belgrade conference Dejan Djokic; 2. In the image of Imelda: the surrogate diplomacy of the First Lady Patrick Flores; 3. Meeting of the kings: the dream factory and cold war diplomacy Jirayudh Sinthuphan; 4. Conquering the world: King Bhumibol's 1960 visit to Burma on film Matthew Phillips; 5. Between style and substance: West German president Heinrich Luebke in Indonesia in 1963 Christian Goeschel; 6. A photograph with two stories: Lisa Larsen and the bandung conference of 1955 Naoko Shimazu; 7. Waxwork wars: exhibiting the Japanese surrender over half a century in Singapore Paul Rae; 8. Cosmic envoy: interkosmos and the poetics of late socialist spaceflight Gerard Sasges; 9. A diplomatic image and its afterlife: Bangkok 1967 and ASEAN's creation myth Deepak Nair; 10. Picturing power: a photographer's view Tom White; Index.