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Southeast Asia as a Problem Area in the Next Decade*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Guy J. Pauker
Affiliation:
University of California in Berkeley
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Extract

Four areas in the world are at present or potentially major power centers: the United States, the Soviet Union, Western Europe, and Communist China. In all four, productivity is on the increase and the political system performs relatively well its integrating and decisionmaking functions. Despite major differences among them which need not be examined here and various weak spots which might reverse trends, these four areas are likely to be in a position to play major roles in political, economic, and cultural international affairs in the coming decade. In contrast, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Tropical Africa, and Latin America are apt to remain power vacuums during this period, owing to their lack of unity, political instability, economic stagnation, and cultural heterogeneity.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1959

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References

* This article, the first draft of which was written in September 1958 as a TEMPO Report (Technical Military Planning Operation, General Electric Company, Santa Barbara, Calif.), summarizes the results of studies in which I have been engaged with the financial support of the University of California, at Berkeley, The RAND Corporation, of Santa Monica, Calif., and, earlier, the Center for International Studies, M.I.T. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the comments which I received on the earlier draft from Ernst B. Haas, A. M. Halpern, Robert A. Scalapino, Soedjatmoko, Soetanto, and Charles Wolf, Jr.