Coda
David I. Steinberg
in Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
This Coda was written in the summer of 2009. See chapter 9 for a reassessment.
The prognosis for early socioeconomic progress in Myanmar is not sanguine, and ...
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The Colonial Era’s Importance in Understanding Burma/Myanmar Today
David I. Steinberg
in Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
The colonial period lasted a relatively short time in its domination of the whole country—only from 1885 to 1948. Its impact, however, has been of far greater significance than one might ...
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The Crises That Are Burma/Myanmar
David I. Steinberg
in Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
This chapter and those that follow, all written before the change in government based on the elections in November 2010, are left intact to encourage the reader to reflect on how the state ...
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The Economy
Patrick McEachern
in North Korea: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Is North Korea economically self-reliant?
North Korean leader Kim Il Sung first declared his emphasis on self-reliance in a 1955 speech. Encapsulating self-reliance of all forms ...
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The Future
Patrick McEachern
in North Korea: What Everyone Needs to Know®
What are the prospects for Korean unification?
The near-term prospects for Korean unification are dim, but unification remains a constitutionally derived, foundational idea of the ...
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Important Residues from the Precolonial Period
David I. Steinberg
in Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
The Burmese look with increasing pride on their precolonial history. No group has more assiduously made contemporary use of the record of approximately 1,000 years of Burman hegemony of the ...
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Independence and the Civilian Government (1948–1962): Mixed Heritages
David I. Steinberg
in Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
The civilian government, which lasted from independence in 1948 until the military coup of 1962 (with a military interregnum in 1958–1960), has variously been resurrected as a positive or ...
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Inter-Korean Relations in the Twenty-First Century
Patrick McEachern
in North Korea: What Everyone Needs to Know®
What were the inter-Korean summits?
North Korean leaders have agreed to meet with all three of South Korea’s progressive presidents but have refused to meet any of its ...
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Introduction
David I. Steinberg
in Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
This introduction was written and the first edition published prior to the inauguration of the new government on March 30, 2011. From the inaugural speech of the new president, former ...
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Introduction
Patrick McEachern
in North Korea: What Everyone Needs to Know®
On November 28, 2017, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un professed his nuclear deterrent “complete.” After a year of trading colorful barbs with the American president that dangerously raised ...
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Issues in Myanmar’s Future
David I. Steinberg
in Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
Winston Churchill once characterized Russian policy as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” We might apply the same analogy to Burma/Myanmar’s future for all the diverse ...
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Korea’s Hot War Turns Cold: Korea in the Cold War
Patrick McEachern
in North Korea: What Everyone Needs to Know®
What is the Juche philosophy of self-reliance?
In 1955, North Korean leader Kim Il Sung delivered a major speech that introduced the world to the Juche idea. Coming just seven ...
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Korea–Japan Relations
Patrick McEachern
in North Korea: What Everyone Needs to Know®
What is the lasting effect of Japan’s colonization of Korea?
Japan’s 1910–1945 colonization of Korea has had lasting social, political, and economic effects on both North and ...
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Korean Leadership in the Twenty-First Century
Patrick McEachern
in North Korea: What Everyone Needs to Know®
What were the ten years of progressive rule in South Korea?
After South Korea’s democratization in the late 1980s, the country continued to be led by conservative presidents until ...
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Korean Society: North and South
Patrick McEachern
in North Korea: What Everyone Needs to Know®
What is North Korea’s Songbun social classification system?
After the Korean War, North Korea’s founder and leader Kim Il Sung aggressively moved to enhance his personal power at ...
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The Military Coup, the Socialist Period (1962–1988), and the Perpetuation of Military Rule
David I. Steinberg
in Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
The military coup of March 2, 1962, in retrospect, seemed designed to accomplish four goals: ensure that the Union of Burma would not be dismantled through minority secession, free Burma ...
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The Nature of Burmese Politics
David I. Steinberg
in Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
The generalizations that follow—as difficult to form as they are necessary if we are to gauge and anticipate the country’s prospects—should not be interpreted as either rigid or ...
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North Korean Human Rights
Patrick McEachern
in North Korea: What Everyone Needs to Know®
What is the status of human rights in North Korea?
North Korea has perhaps the worst human rights record on the planet today. Human rights abuses have been severe since the ...
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Nuclear Weapons and Us–North Korea Relations
Patrick McEachern
in North Korea: What Everyone Needs to Know®
When did North Korea first pursue nuclear technology?
North Korea first demonstrated interest in nuclear technology in the 1950s. North Korean leader Kim Il Sung likely learned ...
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Origins and the Korean War
Patrick McEachern
in North Korea: What Everyone Needs to Know®
What is Korea’s “5,000 years of history”?
Koreans occasionally refer to their people’s “5,000 years of history,” a description that reflects a well-placed pride in the long and ...
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