Drums of War, Drums of Development: The Formation of a Pacific Ruling Class and Industrial Transformation in East and Southeast Asia, 1945-1980

Book excerpt: In Drums of War, Drums of Development, Jim Glassman analyses the geopolitical economy of industrial development in East and Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War era, showing how it was shaped by the collaborative planning of US and Asian elites. Challenging both neo-liberal and neo-Weberian accounts of East Asian development, Glassman offers evidence that the growth of industry (the 'East Asian miracle') was deeply affected by the geopolitics of war and military spending (the 'East Asian massacres'). Thus, while Asian industrial development has been presented as providing models for emulation, Glassman cautions that this industrial dynamism was a product of Pacific ruling class manoeuvring which left a contradictory legacy of rapid growth, death, and ongoing challenges for development and democracy. Shortlisted for the 2019 Deutscher Memorial Prize