This innovative, interdisciplinary and international collection of essays offers fresh perspectives on the history of global diplomacy. Experts in history, international relations, art history and performance art have come together to examine a series of visual sources relating to Asia's role in global diplomacy during the Cold War. They explore how leaders, including Indonesia's Sukarno, the Philippines' Imelda Marcos and Thailand's King Bhumibol, exploited the symbolic value of diplomacy to emphasise their agency in relationships with Great Powers. These case studies demonstrate the significance of Asian diplomacy in understanding the Cold War, shifting away from the use of 'war' as the dominant criterion for analysis of the region. Cold War Asia sheds critical light onto how culture shapes international relations, widening the lens of analysis to embed the role of gender, religion, and ethnicity, as well as the material world, into our understanding of diplomacy.

‘This volume presents a collection of concise and effective contributions by a diverse group of scholars and practitioners who bring to life symbolic moments and everyday manifestations of diplomacy through refreshing and expansive readings of more and less iconic photographs of the Cold War in Southeast Asia. A key reading for anyone interested in exploring the relationship between images and the politics they represent, project, and keep hidden.’

Chiara Formichi - Cornell University