George McT. Kahin

Comparative Politics of Non-Western Countries.

There is wide recognition that in the non-Western world profound social and cultural changes are taking place as traditional societies have been exposed to the ideas and the ways of the West. There is also general agreement that new political patterns and relationships are evolving in these countries. However, with respect to most non-Western countries, it remains difficult to foresee whether the consequences of social change are to be stable, viable political practices or endemic instabilities in government. In many cases, it is still an open question whether the future will bring them a liberal democratic form of politics or some type of authoritarian rule such as communism. This state of affairs can be a challenge to the comparative method of political analysis. This is particularly so because most of the non-Western political systems have many features in common. They are generally the product of a traditional past in which the administration of government was the preserve of a select few. Many show the influence of a previous colonial rule, some even that of the same country. More important, they are often quite self-conscious about the problem of moving from a definite past to an idealized future.

The Presidential Address : A Polarization of Knowledge: Specialization on Contemporary Asia in the United States

As one long preoccupied with American foreign policy and its impact on Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, I should like to talk to you about a problem that has been with us for a rather long time but whose dimensions have in recent years become considerably more extensive. I refer to the great disparity in access to information pertinent to the formulation of foreign policy as between the executive branch of our government on the one hand and Congress along with the news media and the general public on the other. I am not here, of course, to speak in behalf of the AAS or its officers, but rather in accordance with my own personal convictions. But I shall be discussing a matter that I believe should especially command the concern of those of us who specialize in the study of modern and contemporary Asia, and I hope that my remarks will not be alien to the interests of the rest of you.

HANRAHAN, GENE Z. The Communist Struggle in Malaya. With an introduc tion by Victor Purcell. Pp. xii, 133. New York: Institute of Pacific Relations, 1954.

perched on many lower rungs of the ladder of advancement toward self-government or full citizenship in modern states; and the degree and kind of its dependency vary considerably from country to country. The painful record of their grudging absorption into a Western society reluctant to admit them, except on its own terms, has raised problems of cultural co-operation and government for which there are still no clear answers. The real subject of this long book, however, is not the people themselves nor their reactions to the impact of Euro-