Pressure and Protection: Cold War Geopolitics and Nation-Building in South Korea,South Vietnam,Philippines, and Thailand

This paper compares the failures and successes of nation-building in South Korea, South Vietnam, Philippines, and Thailand between 1954 and 1991. The primary argument is that several key elements of Cold War geopolitics interacted with each other, and the unique external and internal politics of each regime, to create divergent frameworks and margins for error that influenced the willingness and ability of each state to assume the burdens of nation-building. In all four states, moreover, the success of nation-building depended on finding the right balance between geopolitical pressure and protection to augment local narratives of security, nationalism, and legitimacy.