American Academy of Political and Social Science

Sage Publications, Inc.

Review
Author(s): Lucian W. Pye
Review by: Lucian W. Pye
Source: The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 351, The
Changing Cold War (Jan., 1964), pp. 234-235
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. in association with the American Academy of Political and
Social Science
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1035280
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234

THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICANACADEMY

non-Western world.
really necessary?

Is this abdication

NORMAND. PALMER

Professor of Political Science

University of Pennsylvania
WILLIAM C. JOHNSTONE. Burma's Foreign

Policy: A Study in Neutralism. Pp. ix,

339. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963. $7.50.
In recent years no subject in international relations has evoked as much nonsense as "neutralism." Unquestionably,
the late John Foster Dulles pushed the
subject to what might be called the hardview extreme when he condemned in the
strongest moral terms those who followed
such policies. Subsequently, the Dulles
critics have gone to the opposite and
equally absurd extreme of extolling as
sentimental wisdom the patently wishywashy statements of ineffectual statesmen.
The subject has been so jinxed as far as
rational analysis is concerned that seasoned
and sophisticated observers instinctively
react skeptically to announcement of any
new book on the issue. Happily this study
by William C. Johnstone, the former director of the Rangoon-Hopkins Center for
Southeast Asian Studies and professor at
the Johns Hopkins University School of
Advanced International Studies, violates
all of these earlier traditions, and stands
out as the most successful analysis of the
complex issues of neutralism to date.
The secret of how Professor Johnstone
has been able to give us this remarkably
refreshing study is relatively simple: he
has appreciated the degree to which the
foreign-policy orientations of weak states
must be a function of their domestic
political life, and he has successfully found
the right balance point between a sympathetic understanding of the sentiments
of the leaders in new states and a clearheaded appraisal of the precise consequences of their actions. In his introduction, Johnstone makes it clear that there
is not a general category of neutralist
states, for each country must, in foreign
affairs, reflect the realities of its particular
history, its geography, and its position of

power. The tendency to think in general

terms about neutralism has led both the
critics and the sympathizers back to compile their separate categories of the total
vices or virtues of the "neutralist"
states, and thus each side has been able to
present highly exaggerated and biased
judgments.
Johnstone demonstrates that Burmese
neutralism is in many respects unique, and
what it shares with Indian, Indonesian,
and Cambodian versions of neutralism is
more at the level of sentiment and frustration than of rational calculations. In arriving at this conclusion, Johnstone presents a detailed and extremely insightful
analysis of modern Burmese political developments. His treatment of the immediate postwar years unfortunately reflects
his dependence on the general literature
on that period, which is not of particularly

high quality and which is characterized

by a rather innocently optimistic view of
Burmese accomplishments. Once Johnstone reaches the period when he had
firsthand contacts with the Burma scene,
the quality of analysis conspicuously improves. Unquestionably, his treatment of
the period from 1958 to 1962 is not only
the most revealing and sensitive analysis
of the split in the Anti-Fascist Peoples
Freedom League (AFPFL), the decline of
U Nu, and the emergence of the army as
the ruling force, but it also ranks among
the best political reporting of any period
of Burmese history.
In his final evaluation, Johnstone presents with sympathetic understanding the
essentially Burmese case for her foreign
policies. He then examines many of the
emotional and cultural considerations supporting these Burmese feelings. There is,
for example, the strong Burmese quality
of believing that friendship can solve all
problems. Johnstone notes the frantic
Burmese concern with friendship; then he
raises the hard question of whether the
Burmese may not have lost all their possible international friends by seeking always to be "independent." One is reminded that only a Burmese ambassador
could have conceived of the plan of
strengthening peace and international good

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235

BOOK DEPARTMENT

will by planning a dinner party to which

he invited, pair by pair, the representatives of governments which do not recognize each other-the Chinese Communist
and the American, the East and the West
German, the Egyptian and the Israeli, and
so on. In emerging unperturbed from the
shambles of the party, the Burmese ambassador expressed another sentiment
which Johnstone finds to be characteristic
of Burmese diplomacy: he declared that
his policies were not guided by rigid principles but only by where moral right and
wrong lie. As usual the implication was
that all who oppose or criticize Burmese
conduct must be on the side of the moral
wrong.
In his conclusion Johnstone moves
beyond the level of attitude and sentiment
and seeks to make a coldly realistic appraisal of where neutralism has taken
Burma. His conclusion is disquieting, for
he shows that the steady drift of Burma
under Chinese Communist pressure has
been away from her initial course toward
democratic development. All those who
take an easy view of the presumed advantages of neutralism should ponder
well Johnstone's balanced and objective
judgments.
LUCIAN W. PYE

Professor of Political Science

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
JAMES

W.

SPAIN.

The

People

of

the

Khyber: The Pathans of Pakistan. Pp.

190. New York: Frederick A. Praeger,
1963. No price.
The author, in his preface, modestly
waives any claim that his book be considered a "landmark in the literature on
the Pathans," or its appearance an "event
of great significance." It is not. Nor can
it be said that he has been notably successful in his expressed aim "to convey
something of what . . . [the Pathans]
themselves feel for their own way of life"
(p. 11), a task more difficult than Mr.
Spain perhaps realizes. Pathans in considerable numbers make their appearance
on these pages, but the author is constantly present, and we see, in fact, through
his eyes and share in his reactions to

people, places, and events. The book is,

first of all, a personal narrative.
This is not to dismiss it as of no account. Mr. Spain is well qualified to
introduce a reader to the peoples of
the northwestern frontier. He first became acquainted-and fascinated-with the
Pathans while he served as Vice-Consul
at the American Embassy in Karachi.
Deciding to pursue his studies of these
people in a more scholarly and systematic
fashion than was possible under the circumstances, he resigned from the Foreign
Service and enrolled in Columbia University. There and in London he studied
the extensive literature on the area and
in subsequent trips to Pakistan travelled
widely in the frontier districts. The reader
will find in this book a sketch of the
history of the Pathans, a brief account of
some of their important institutions, and
glimpses of their famous men. For the
most part, the material is presented
within a framework of personal travel and
experience.
The student already acquainted with the
literature on the Pathans will be interested
in this book chiefly for the information
Mr. Spain provides on developments involving the frontier in the years since
Pakistan became a separate and independent nation. In the final chapters, he
sums up the facts available and his impressions gathered in trips up and down the
frontier, including a few forays into tribal
territory as well as a journey over the
Khyber to Kabul. To summarize very
briefly, he is sanguine about the future of
the Pathans as an important and integral
part of the population of West Pakistan,
and "hopeful" for a solution to the Pushtoonistan issue. Looking rather far ahead
with respect to this last, he writes concerning the two countries involved: "Indeed,
many leaders and officials on both sides
remain able to contemplate with equanimity and even with hope the prospect
of some kind of confederation" (p. 181)
of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
DOROTHYM. SPENCER

Visiting Lecturer
South Asia Regional Studies
University of Pennsylvania

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