Chapter 8 - Globalization and mass society, 1970s to 2000s

Summary

The Cold War in Asia eased after the US departure from Indochina. The US remained Thailand’s military patron, but at a much greater distance. Thailand’s orientation to a liberal market economy, established in the American era, strengthened as the socialist alternative declined on a world scale. After an initial period of economic and political adjustment to the US departure, Thailand caught the tail of an Asia-wide boom led by Japan and the East Asian Tiger economies of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The liberalization of first trade and then finance accelerated the pace of industrialization and urbanization and incorporated Thailand more firmly within a global economy. The close of the Cold War also transformed neighbouring countries from enemy territory to economic hinterland – as markets and as sources of human and natural resources. In the late 1980s, China emerged from its four decades of partial eclipse and again became a major factor in Thailand’s economy and position in the world.