Dr. Alexander Vuving has a new article on “Vietnam headed to the future with a defective compass” published by the East Asia Forum.

According to the article synopsis, last year, “Vietnam adopted a strategy that maintains an outlook of peace, cooperation, and development. It has formed comprehensive strategic partnerships with the United States and Japan while also joining China’s ‘community with a shared future,’ ceasing years of resistance to Chinese pressure. Despite its external diplomatic moves, Vietnam’s domestic policy has focused on preserving Communist Party rule through continued anti-corruption campaigns and repression of civil society — including arrests of activists — leading to stagnation in bureaucracy, decreased public trust, and undermined mechanisms for accountability.”

This article is part of an EAF special feature series on 2023 in review and the year ahead.

You can read it online at: https://eastasiaforum.org/2024/02/12/vietnam-headed-to-the-future-with-a-defective-compass/

Alexander Vuving is a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. The views expressed are those of the author alone and do not represent the official policy of the DKI APCSS, the U.S. Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.