Please register by 13 December, 2023

What is the nature of the market system under the leadership of the Vietnamese communist party-state? Where is the regime heading, and what are its strengths and vulnerabilities? In the first part of this talk, I use the three most recent scandals in Vietnam to present three alternative concepts of its political economy, i.e., predatory party-state, red crony capitalism, and what I call “Samsung socialism.” I argue that these concepts go much further than existing concepts such as “market Leninism” in capturing the nature of Vietnam’s peculiarpolitical economy. The second part of the talk presents a holistic framework to explain the strengths and vulnerabilities of surviving communist regimes in Asia, especially Vietnam.

Tuong Vu is Professor of Political Science and Director of the US-Vietnam Research Center at the University of Oregon. He has held visiting appointments at Seoul National University, Princeton University and National University of Singapore, and has taught at the Naval Postgraduate School. Vu is the author or co-editor of nine books, including: Republican Vietnam, 1963-1975: War, Society, Diaspora (Hawaii, 2023); The Dragon’s Underbelly: Dynamics and Dilemmas in Vietnam’s Economy and Politics (ISEAS, 2023); Toward a Framework for Vietnamese American Studies: History, Community, and Memory (Temple, 2023); Building a Republican Nation in Vietnam, 1920-1963 (Hawaii, 2022) and Vietnam’s Communist Revolution: The Power and Limits of Ideology (Cambridge, 2017). He has also authored numerous articles and book chapters on the politics of nationalism, communism, revolution, and state-building in East and Southeast Asia. He serves on the editorial or advisory boards of several journals such as Pacific Affairs, Journal of East Asian Studies, and International Journal of Asian Studies.
 

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