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ID: 154251

Balancing the foreign and the familiar in the articulation of kingship: the royal court Brahmans of Thailand / McGovern, Nathan

McGovern, Nathan	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

Scholars of Southeast Asia have for several decades moved away from theories of ‘Indianisation’, in favour of theories of ‘localisation’. So far, however, there has been little attempt to apply the methodological shift from Indianisation to localisation to an important living relic of the prime agents of older Indianisation theories: the royal court Brahmans of Thailand. In this article, I examine the history of this still-functioning Southeast Asian Brahmanical institution, with respect both to evidence of its ties to India and to the ways it has been ‘localised’. I argue that it is best understood as a local articulation of kingship, negotiating a necessary tension between the foreign and the familiar in royal ritual.

Key Words

Foreign ; Articulation of Kingship ; Brahmans of Thailand

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ID: 192255

Org. Gehlen/BND and German military and civilian experts in the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s / Ludke, Tilman

Ludke, Tilman	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

This article deals with the observation of the activities of West Germans in the Middle East by the West German intelligence organizations Org. Gehlen (under US tutelage until 1956) and the Bundesnachrichtendienst/ BND (under German Federal jurisdiction thereafter) between the late 1940s and late 1960s. It is largely based on hitherto unpublished primary sources from the BND archive, to which the author had access as member of the officially appointed Independent Commission of Historians for the History of the BND (‘Unabhängige Historikerkommission’ or UHK). It argues that the Org. Gehlen/ the BND performed well. It furnished its employers with accurate information and insightful interpretations in the complicated field of Middle Eastern politics in the first quarter century after de-colonization. It also demonstrates how the Federal Government did not necessarily follow the BND’s recommendations, particularly with regard to its policy towards Israel. In this aspect the BND serves as an example of the strengths and weaknesses of intelligence services per se.

Key Words

Culture ; Economy ; Politics ; Policy ; Foreign

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