Selected Issues on Political Economy, Society, and Environment of Contemporary Vietnam: A Preliminary Review of the Literature

Abstract

Non-US-centric literature took up a smaller share and generally employed Vietnam as a case study for theories of conflicts, for example (Arreguín-Toft 2001; Norton and Merom 2003). It is also worth noting that the literature on Vietnam – be the focus on the country itself or the Vietnam War – was largely book-based and often ethnographic in nature (cf. Hickey 1964; Louis 1969). More recent works seemed to be less US-centric and more about Vietnam as the subject, perhaps owing to shifts in interest (from attempts to explain and analyze the Vietnam War to a focus on Vietnam’s growth, especially economic) as well as to the rise of generations of Vietnamese intellectuals, both contributing to the literature and attracting foreign colleagues towards the country. This literature shall be the focus of the review.