Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: April 29, 2021 at 8:37:46 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]: Sambaluk on Ladwig III, 'The Forgotten Front: > Patron-Client Relationships in Counterinsurgency' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Walter C. Ladwig III. The Forgotten Front: Patron-Client > Relationships in Counterinsurgency. Cambridge Cambridge University > Press, 2017. xv + 346 pp. $34.99 (paper), ISBN 978-1-316-62180-6; > $105.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-107-17077-3. > > Reviewed by Nicholas Sambaluk (Air University) > Published on H-War (April, 2021) > Commissioned by Margaret Sankey > > An academic study using theoretical terms and concepts, _The > Forgotten Front _is foremost a work written in hopes of guiding the > decision-makers of powerful states. Through a powerful trio of case > studies, author Walter C. Ladwig III underscores the point that > although patron states and their smaller clients can share a common > enemy during a counterinsurgency effort, few goals may be held in > common. For that reason, historical cases suggest that patrons should > ensure that the assistance they provide be contingent on the client's > performance in areas valued by the providing patron. > > Frequently, the patron may identify such areas as anti-corruption > efforts or economic initiatives that are galling or even > counterproductive from the standpoint of the client regime. Indeed, > at least in the shorter term, such initiatives can undercut the > regime's power and implicitly its capability against an insurgent's > challenge. Ladwig makes clear, however, that the patron is well > advised to support a client _country_ rather than a client _regime_, > as support for the latter can easily morph into an obligation to > either support an unfettered strongman (whose policies may engender > enduring antipathy and rebellion from the population) or else abandon > the entire effort toward the client state. Ladwig's study of South > Vietnam from 1957 to 1963 illustrates this dilemma, and the author > observes that promises (especially those made by figures like > President John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, at the time vice > president) toward South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem massively > eroded the apparent credibility of US threats to make aid contingent > on the regime's reform efforts. > > In contrast, US aid to the newly independent Filipino government > during its struggle against communist Huk forces in the late 1940s > and early 1950s was much more predicated on the Filipino government > and military acting in accordance with US advice. The > counterinsurgency conflict remained a stubborn one, but the > Philippines ultimately prevailed and the United States had supported > the country rather than invest entirely in one particular political > figure. Across multiple cases, the pattern reflects that the client's > dependence on foreign assistance is (predictably) correlated to the > degree of leverage that is attainable by the patron. > > US involvement in El Salvador from 1979 to 1992 occupies a middle > ground for Ladwig, between the relative success in the Philippines > and the catastrophe in South Vietnam. Conditionality of aid was > practiced but not consistently, and Ladwig points to the > correspondingly mixed results as a more than coincidental outcome. > > The work is both useful and readable, and Ladwig admirably addresses > definitional and theoretical areas (which might otherwise have proved > thorny) in an early and clear manner. The book is all the stronger > for that. The tone throughout the book is serious, but for a > footnote's subtle and playful reference to Notre Dame University as > the alma mater of El Salvadoran reform politician Jose Duarte. Since > the analysis is very much from the perspective of the patron and > deals with what patron states should or should not do in their > support of counterinsurgency campaigns in third-party countries, the > book does perhaps unintentionally cast less-than-cooperative client > leaders as implicitly petulant and short-sighted. As a consequence, > _The Forgotten Front_ forms an interesting reply to such works as Odd > Arne Westad's _The Global Cold War_ (2007), which highlights the > agency of minor states during the Cold War. Ladwig's reliance on US > archival materials helps make the project much more practical to > undertake, but it also helps guarantee what is primarily a patron's > perspective of the client rather than a third-party appraisal of > patron-client relationships. > > That, however, is not a serious problem since the book provides > advice for patrons and is intended in that vein. Allusions to more > modern cases, beyond the Cold War, and the acknowledgment that > certain dynamics may be substantially altered by the emergence of a > post-Cold War geopolitical landscape indicate that the people > designing aid policy for client states form a key intended audience > for this book. Thus the work closes with five prescriptive points: to > anticipate that relations with the client will not be cordial, to > ensure that conditions are set and that they are clear and measurable > as well as realistic, to be prepared for opposition within the > patron's own decision-making circles, and to encourage local > reformers in the client state. As if the message were not already > strongly enough made, the closing words remove all doubt: "sometimes > being a good ally means being a stern friend" (p. 313). > > Citation: Nicholas Sambaluk. Review of Ladwig III, Walter C., _The > Forgotten Front: Patron-Client Relationships in Counterinsurgency_. > H-War, H-Net Reviews. April, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55950 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#8275): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8275 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/82454258/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
