Organizer: Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University

Type/Location: In Person / Ithaca, NY

Description:

Join the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University for a talk by Andrew Mertha,  the George and Sadie Hyman Professor of China Studies, Director of the China Studies Program, and Director of the SAIS China Research Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

In 1979, the Vietnamese army seized Phnom Penh, toppling Pol Pot's notoriously brutal regime. Yet the Khmer Rouge did not disintegrate. Instead, the movement continued to rule over swathes of Cambodia for almost another two decades, even as it failed to become a legitimate governing organization. In Dr. Mertha’s talk, he argues that the Khmer Rouge’s successes and failures were both driven by its refusal to dilute its revolutionary vision. Rather than taking the moderate tack required for viable governance, it pivoted between only two political strategies: united front and class struggle. Through the stories of three key leaders—Ieng Sary, Son Sen, and Ta Mok—Andrew Mertha tracks the movement's shifting from one strategy to the other until its dissolution in the 1990s.

About the Speaker:

Andrew Mertha is the George and Sadie Hyman Professor of China Studies, Director of the China Studies Program, and Director of the SAIS China Research Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). From 2019 to 2021, Mertha served as the Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs and International Research Cooperation at SAIS. He is formerly a professor of Government at Cornell University and an assistant professor of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis. Mertha is the author of Brothers in Arms: Chinese Aid to the Khmer Rouge, 1975-1979 (Cornell University Press, 2014) and the editor of May Ebihara’s Svay: A Cambodian Village, with an Introduction by Judy Ledgerwood (Cornell University Press/Cornell Southeast Asia Program Press, 2018). His forthcoming book, Bad Lieutenants: The Khmer Rouge, United Front, and Class Struggle, 1970–1997, will be published by Cornell University Press in May 2025. Mertha is on the Editorial Committee for the Journal of Comparative Politics, The China Quarterly, and Asian Survey. He is vice president of the Center for Khmer Studies (CKS), a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and an alumnus of the NCUSCR Public Intellectuals Program, 2008-2010. He received his PhD from the University of Michigan and is originally from New York City.

Registration:

To attend the event in person, please register here.