Current History Magazine

09/19/2025

In our September issue, Junjia Ye examines Singapore’s skills-based migration regime. In the multicultural city-state, “diversity is structured by skill categorizations that organize labor and classify workers,” writes Ye, an associate professor of human geography at the School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University. While a viable path to citizenship is available to certain higher-income migrants, the lives of the far more numerous workers deemed semi-skilled or unskilled and denied the right to long-term settlement are rendered precarious. Yet migrants from countries in South and Southeast Asia have managed to create enclaves that offer community and culture: “Even with their transience and economic marginalization, migrants leave their mark on the city, shaping and claiming public spaces.”
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article/124/863/229/212841/How-Singapore-Manages-Labor-Migration-and

Ye’s essay, “How Singapore Manages Labor Migration and Diversity” is available along with the rest of our annual China and East Asia issue in print and on our website.
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/issue/124/863

Singapore has long relied on migrant workers, using a framework of racial categories dating from the colonial era to manage diversity. More recently, the city-state has turned to classifying migrants’ skills as a means of regulating their access to employment, rights, and longer-term settlement. T...

09/17/2025

In our annual China and East Asia September issue, Dominik M. Müller explains how absolute monarchy has endured in Brunei. “Although Brunei is an autocracy, it differs from more overtly repressive or violent dictatorial regimes,” writes Müller, chair of cultural and social anthropology at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. The “soft authoritarianism” of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah’s long rule has been maintained “through bureaucratic restrictions, consensus, and extensive welfare.” But the aging monarch’s recent health scare has his subjects wondering what the future holds. The political system will need to respond to increasing concerns about “inclusion, nondiscrimination, educational and children’s rights, citizenship issues,” and other “core values of human rights” among Brunei’s cosmopolitan and well-educated young people.
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article/124/863/222/212837/Brunei-Faces-Generational-Change

Müller’s essay, “Brunei Faces Generational Change,” is available along with the rest of our September issue in print and on our website.
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/issue/124/863

Brunei Darussalam is an absolute monarchy that has resisted decades of international advocacy for democracy and civic rights. Long seen as an anachronism, its autocratic order—anchored in expansive welfare, personalized rule, and discursive legitimation through the doctrine of “Melayu Islam Bera...

09/12/2025

In our September issue, Maxime Polleri traces the contentious responses to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. “Beyond reviving painful memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” writes Polleri, an assistant professor of anthropology at Université Laval, the disaster has “fueled endless controversies about the health hazards of radiation.” Government officials have promoted a politics of recovery, calling for the return of evacuees. Some locals reacted with skepticism, practicing “citizen science”—they “began to track radiation in their local environment, organizing research workshops and testing food products for contamination.” But strong official and social pressures “created an atmosphere in which it became increasingly hard to speak about radiation and its potential danger,” even as a recent wastewater disposal controversy showed that the disaster is still not over.
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article/124/863/216/212836/Fukushima-and-the-Politics-of-Nuclear-Disaster

Polleri’s essay, “Fukushima and the Politics of Nuclear Disaster Recovery” is available along with the rest of our annual China and East Asia issue in print and on our website.
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/issue/124/863

The 2011 meltdown at Fukushima, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami, was the worst nuclear power plant disaster in Japan’s history, bringing back painful memories of trauma associated with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While the aftermaths of Fukushima remain contentious, Japan...

09/09/2025

In our September issue, Pamela McElwee probes the long-lasting effects of the US military’s ecologically destructive tactics during the Vietnam War. Fifty years after the conflict ended, Vietnam still suffers from “degraded ecosystems and diminished wildlife,” as well “dioxin-contaminated soils and waters,” writes McElwee, a professor of human ecology at Rutgers University and a Current History contributing editor. Defoliating herbicides, incendiary na**lm bombs, and massive bulldozers called “Rome Plows,” among other devices, ravaged forests, leaving them vulnerable to colonization by weedy species and prone to erosion. These campaigns also left in their wake “birth defects and illnesses among both veterans of the war and civilians living near contaminated sites.” Vietnam was left to bear the costs of recovery on its own for much of the postwar period, exemplifying the need for international conventions on ecocide.
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article/124/863/209/212838/Revisiting-the-Environmental-Legacies-of-the

McElwee’s essay, “Revisiting the Environmental Legacies of the Vietnam War,” is available along with the rest of our annual China and East Asia issue in print and on our website.
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/issue/124/863

09/04/2025

In our annual China and East Asia issue, Meg Rithmire examines China’s glaring economic contradictions. “China’s economy is in both a virtuous cycle and a vicious one,” writes Rithmire, a professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School. Chinese dominance of many technological industries is growing, but it has provoked protectionist backlashes abroad, making “innovation around restrictions a task of existential importance.” A long real estate slump has indebted local governments, which struggle to find alternate sources of income. Official efforts to encourage more spending have faltered as work becomes more automated: “without meaningful pathways to stable employment for an anxious generation of well-educated urbanites, the problem of low consumption is only magnified.”
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article/124/863/203/212835/China-s-Perilously-Imbalanced-Economic-Success

Rithmire’s essay, “China’s Perilously Imbalanced Economic Success,” is available along with the rest of our September issue in print and on our website.
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/issue/124/863

China’s contemporary economic trajectory is paradoxical, marked by both extraordinary technological advancement and mounting macroeconomic vulnerabilities. China has achieved global leadership in advanced manufacturing sectors such as electric vehicles and batteries, and continues to innovate in f...

09/02/2025

In our September issue, enjoy free access (for a limited time) to an essay by Yoonkyung Lee on heightened polarization in South Korea following President Yoon Suk-yeol’s declaration of martial law in December 2024. “South Korean citizens responded to Yoon’s action in accordance with a long tradition of standing up for democracy,” writes Lee, a professor of sociology at the University of Toronto. The vibrant protest movement, in which young women figured prominently, “once again demonstrated that Korean citizens are participatory democrats who safeguard democracy when autocratic forces attempt to destroy hard-won freedom.” But Yoon’s brand of politics retains a substantial following despite his impeachment, revealing a society “divided between ardent supporters of democracy and proponents of authoritarian leadership.”
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article/124/863/234/212840/South-Korea-s-Martial-Law-CrisisDemocratic-Retreat

Lee’s essay, “South Korea’s Martial Law Crisis: Democratic Retreat or Resilience?” is available along with the rest of our annual China and East Asia issue in print and on our website.
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/issue/124/863

When President Yoon Suk-yeol announced that he was imposing martial law in December 2024, thousands of South Koreans took to the streets to defend democracy—but the country remains deeply riven by political polarization after his impeachment.

08/29/2025

The international affairs journal Current History presents its September 2025 issue: the annual China and East Asia issue. https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/issue/124/863

Our September issue includes the following essays:

China’s Perilously Imbalanced Economic Success
Meg Rithmire (Harvard Business School)
As a real estate slump drags on, Chinese households and public finances are under strain, even as the government pushes for global leadership in advanced technologies.

Revisiting the Environmental Legacies of the Vietnam War
Pamela McElwee (Rutgers University)
The US military’s efforts to reshape the Vietnamese battlefield with herbicides and other methods left lasting damage. The consequences of ecocide remain largely unaddressed.

Fukushima and the Politics of Nuclear Disaster Recovery
Maxime Polleri (Université Laval)
Mistrustful of government narratives concerning radiation risk, practitioners of “citizen science”
emerged to monitor the effects of contamination in their communities.

Brunei Faces Generational Change
Dominik M. Müller (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has proved that absolute monarchy is no anachronism, but his successors may struggle to duplicate his popularity and image of stability.

How Singapore Manages Labor Migration and Diversity
Junjia Ye (Nanyang Technological University)
Categories related to skills govern who is eligible for long-term residency and citizenship, making life precarious for the legions of laborers who keep the city-state running.

PERSPECTIVE
South Korea’s Martial Law Crisis: Democratic Retreat or Resilience?
Yoonkyung Lee (University of Toronto)
President Yoon Suk-yeol’s abortive declaration of martial law met with robust pro-democracy protests and impeachment, but his reactionary strain of politics remains potent.

BOOKS
The Politics of Ethnography at a Tibetan Nunnery
Charlene Makley (Reed College)
Gender hierarchies and other power relations shape the lives of women living in massive Buddhist monastic communities in the shadow of state repression.

Current History | 124 | 863 | September 2025

06/03/2025

A reminder to our readers: Current History does not publish June, July, or August issues. We will return to our regular monthly schedule with the September 2025 issue. Meanwhile, enjoy free access to all articles in our May issue—our annual Africa issue.

Current History | 124 | 862 | May 2025

05/28/2025

Please enjoy free access (for a limited time) to all essays in our annual Africa issue, courtesy of University of California Press! Contributors include Michael Woldemariam, Faeeza Ballim, Emmanuel Mogende, Bamba Ndiaye, Ursula Read, Lily Kpobi, and Daniel E. Agbiboa.

Current History | 124 | 862 | May 2025

05/27/2025

In our May issue, Current History editor Joshua Lustig reviews “The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon,” by Adam Shatz. Born in Martinique a century ago, Fanon identified with the ideals of the French Revolution as well as the independence struggles of colonized people. While serving as a doctor and propagandist in Algeria, he became “so devoted to the cause that he identified as an Algerian himself.” Fanon’s critics deride him as an apostle of violence, but he reasoned that “the overwhelming violence with which colonial rule was maintained in Algeria and elsewhere gave colonized peoples little choice but to resort to armed struggle.” Shatz does not overlook his subject’s shortcomings, but makes a strong case for Fanon’s continuing relevance through close attention to his writings.
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article/124/862/197/209754/Return-to-the-Prophet-of-Revolt

Lustig’s review is available along with the rest of our annual Africa issue in print and on our website.
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/issue/124/862

A new biography of iconic anti-colonial thinker Frantz Fanon emphasizes how his psychiatric practice informed his radical politics, and vice versa.

05/19/2025

In our annual Africa issue, Daniel E. Agbiboa surveys the multiple crises that currently define life in Nigeria. Nigerians must “scrape, hustle, and hope in a country that often feels like it is working against them,” writes Agbiboa, an associate professor of African and African American studies at Harvard University. Effective security, education, and health care are scarce public goods; those who can afford to hire private services or move abroad. Also increasingly unaffordable are staples such as food, running water, and fuel, “a cruel irony” for residents of the leading oil-producing nation in Africa. Disastrous floods in recent years have added an environmental component to the sense of systemic collapse. “Nigeria’s resilience is legendary,” but it is “not a substitute for justice.”
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article/124/862/194/209753/May-Nigeria-Not-Happen-to-You

Agbiboa’s essay, “May Nigeria Not Happen to You,” is available along with the rest of our May issue in print and on our website.
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/issue/124/862

Systemic state failures have left Nigerians struggling to survive a cost of living crisis, inaccessible health care, climate-related disasters, and rising insecurity.

05/15/2025

In our May issue, Ursula Read and Lily Kpobi detail the multiple approaches to mental health care prevalent in Ghana, from medical facilities to traditional shrines and Pentecostal churches. The country has “continued to embrace a pluralistic system of health care, even as mental health services have expanded,” write Read, a lecturer in global public health at the University of Essex, and Kpobi, a research fellow with the Regional Institute for Population Studies at the University of Ghana. Defying expectations, medical professionals have not replaced traditional and faith healers, who remain popular despite the abusive methods of some practitioners. The limited resources of institutional authorities dampen their appeal, “driving families back to the promises of traditional and faith healers.”
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article/124/862/187/209758/Pluralistic-Approaches-to-Mental-Health-Care-in

Read and Kpobi’s essay, “Pluralistic Approaches to Mental Health Care in Ghana,” is available along with the rest of our annual Africa issue in print and on our website.
https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/issue/124/862

In many African countries, traditional and faith healers are popular options for treating mental health problems. But there are serious concerns about healers engaging in potential human rights abuses. Collaboration between medical professionals and healers has long been proposed to address gaps in....