Jim Glassman

Bio: Jim Glassman is an academic researcher from University of British Columbia. The author has contributed to research in topics: East Asia & Globalization. The author has an hindex of 24, co-authored 50 publications receiving 1884 citations. Previous affiliations of Jim Glassman include Syracuse University & University of Minnesota.

A Not-So-Distant Horror: Mass Violence in East Timor

Abstract: Joseph Nevins, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005. xx and 273 pp., maps, photos, notes, and index. $49.95 cloth (ISBN 0-8014-4306-7); $18.95 paper (ISBN 0-8014-8984-9). It is unlikely that ...

From Reds to Red Shirts: Political Evolution and Devolution in Thailand

Abstract: In August 1965 the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) began low-level military actions in the Thai countryside, the culmination of several decades of clandestine organizing and development. The party was Maoist, choosing to emphasize armed struggle in the countryside on the Chinese model, and siding with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Sino ^ Soviet split. In return, the CPT received support from the CCP, including use of a transmitter in Yunnan province (southwest China), from which it broadcast the Voice of the People of Thailand radio. Thai reds were not the only active leftists in this period. From the 1930s Thailand had seen the development of various social-democratic and reformist projects, many spurred by the revolution of 1932 and civilian bloc around Pridi Banomyangöthe author of the country's first constitutionöincluding urban labor and village organizations. Like the CPT, these reform groups were repressed by the military dictatorship of the 1950s ^ 60s, but also like the CPT they began to reemerge in the late 1960s as Thai society changed and the grip of the military dictatorship weakened. In 1972 labor unionsöbanned since 1958öwere legalized and began a period of dramatically increased activity that led to record numbers of strikes during the parliamentary period 1973 ^ 76. In that same period the Peasant Federation of Thailand (PFT) was formed to support a new land rent control act, enlisting hundreds of thousands of households as members. University students played a key catalytic role, helping break apart the ruling military bloc and usher in parliamentary politics by leading mass demonstrations in October 1973 and beginning to organize students, labor unionists, and farmers through the National Student Center of Thailand (NSCT). Some students, labor, and peasant leaders were surreptitiously members of the CPT; most were not. From the perspectives of embattled ruling groupsömilitary leaders, royalists, insecure business leaders, urban professionals, and village elitesö the distinctions didn't always matter. At the same time as the Thai military carried out counterinsurgency campaigns against the CPT, Thai paramilitary groups waged violence against the reformists and the above-ground left. Labor leaders were harassed and beaten, PFT leaders were assassinated, as was an academic attempting to build a socialist party, and on 6 October 1976 the military and paramilitary groups collaborated in a coup d'ëtat, ousting the short-lived parliamentary regime and carrying out a savage mass murder, torture, and public humiliation campaign against protesting students at Thammasat University. These events of 1976 seemed to prove the Maoists right: the city was an impossible place to organize against a violent, repressive state. The formerly above-ground student, labor, and peasant activists were forced to retreat to the countryside and join the CPT. Optimistic leftists and dour counterinsurgency specialists anticipated that this flood of urbanites into the maquis would boost the prospects for revolution in Thailand. In fact, it didn't, not only because it exposed debilitating ideological differences between the Maoist CPT leadership and the new recruits but because the Nixon ^Kissinger entente Commentary Environment and Planning A 2010, volume 42, pages 765 ^ 770

The Geography of ‘Vietnam’

Abstract: “Vietnam” connotes far more than it could ever denote, and yet it often connotes very little about Vietnam or the Vietnam War. Growing up in the United States during the era of what Vietnamese call...

The Production of Space

Abstract: ‘The Production of Space’, in: Frans Jacobi, Imagine, Space Poetry, Copenhagen, 1996, unpaginated.

The New Imperialism

Abstract: From a world history perspective, the most noticeable trend in the history of the late 19th century was the domination of Europeans over Non­Europeans. This domination took many forms ranging from economic penetration to outright annexation. No area of the globe, however remote from Europe, was free of European merchants, adventurers, explorers or western missionaries. Was colonialism good for either the imperialist or the peoples of the globe who found themselves subjects of one empire or another? A few decades ago, the answer would have been a resounding no. Now, in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the more or less widespread discrediting of Marxist and Leninist analysis, and the end of the Cold War, political scientists and historians seem willing to take a more positive look at Nineteenth Century Imperialism. One noted current historian, Niall Ferguson has argued that the British Empire probably accomplished more positive good for the world than the last generation of historians, poisoned by Marxism, could or would concede. Ferguson has argued that the British Empire was a \" liberal \" empire that upheld international law, kept the seas open and free, and ultimately benefited everyone by ensuring the free flow of trade. In other words, Ferguson would find little reason to contradict the young Winston Churchill's assertion that the aim of British imperialism was to: give peace to warring tribes, to administer justice where all was violence, to strike the chains off the slave, to draw the richness from the soil, to place the earliest seeds of commerce and learning, to increase in whole peoples their capacities for pleasure and diminish their chances of pain. It should come as no surprise that Ferguson regards the United States current position in the world as the natural successor to the British Empire and that the greatest danger the U.S. represents is that the world will not get enough American Imperialism because U.S. leaders often have short attention spans and tend to pull back troops when intervention becomes unpopular. It will be very interesting to check back into the debate on Imperialism about ten years from now and see how Niall Ferguson's point of view has fared! The other great school of thought about Imperialism is, of course, Marxist. For example, Marxist historians like E.J. Hobsbawm argue that if we look at the l9th century as a great competition for the world's wealth and …

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

Abstract: The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century Thomas L. Friedman Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005 Thomas Friedman is a widely-acclaimed journalist, foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, and author of four best-selling books that include From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989). His eminence as a journalist is clearly demonstrated in the way he prepared for The World is Flat. He traveled throughout the world, interviewing in depth the political and business leaders who have the most direct, hands-on knowledge of the truly incredible developments occurring in the business structures and technology of globalization. Only a journalist who moves freely at the highest levels could interview the likes of Sir John Rose, the chief executive of Rolls-Royce; Nobuyuki Idei, the chairman of Sony; Richard Koo, the chief economist for the Nomura Research Institute; Bill Gates of Microsoft; Wee Theng Tan, the president of Intel China; David Baltimore, president of Caltech; Howard Schultz, founder and chairman of Starbucks; Nandan Nilekani, CEO of Infosys in Bangalore - and many others, each of whom gave him the inside story of how, specifically, the barriers of time and space separating economies, workforces, sources of capital, and technical abilities are crumbling. The result of this unfolding story, already far along but with much farther to go, according to Friedman, is that "the world is flat." With some notable exceptions in sub-Saharan Africa and the Islamic swathe, everything is connected with everything else on a horizontal basis, with distance and erstwhile time-lags no longer mattering. Friedman describes in detail the galloping globalization that has unfolded in even so limited a time as the past five years. Under the impetus of a worldwide network of interconnectivity, the world economy is much-changed from what it was at the turn of the century a mere half-decade ago. Friedman quotes the CEO of India's Infosys: "What happened over the last [few] years is that there was a massive investment in technology, especially in the bubble era, when hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in putting broadband connectivity around the world, undersea cables," while (Friedman paraphrases him) "computers became cheaper and dispersed all over the world, and there was an explosion of software - e-mail, search engines like Google, and proprietary software that can chop up any piece of work and send one part to Boston, one part to Bangalore, and one part to Beijing...." Microprocessors today have 410 million transistors compared to the 2800 they had in 1971. And now, "wireless is what will allow you to take everything that has been digitized, made virtual and personal, and do it from anywhere." The effect on productivity is revolutionary: "It now takes Boeing eleven days to build a 737, down from twenty-eight days just a few years ago. Boeing will build the next generation of planes in three days, because all the parts are computer-designed for assembly." The most strikingly informative aspect of this book, however, is not about technology. Most especially, Friedman explores the rapidly evolving global business systems, each constantly regenerating itself to keep ahead of the others. These are systems that span the continents seeking the lowest-cost providers of everything from expert scientific and engineering work to the lowliest grunt work. Friedman points out that India produces 70,000 accounting graduates each year - and that they are willing to start at $100 a month. It is no wonder that Boeing employs 800 Russian scientists and engineers for passenger-plane design when "a U.S. aeronautical engineer costs $120 per design hour, a Russian costs about one-third of that." Friedman describes a call center in India where outbound callers sell "everything from credit cards to phone minutes," while operators taking inbound calls do "everything from tracing lost luggage for U.S. and European airline passengers to solving computer problems for confused American consumers. …