Letter from the Editors

Narratives are the stories we tell ourselves: about the past, the present, the future. The phrase is said in some circles with derision, obliquely referencing a grand master narrative into which the media must fit every story for some mysterious end – those stories that fall outside “the narrative” are supposedly set aside.

But here at The Diplomat we have always taken a light hand to guiding the narrative because we know, viscerally, that the stories we tell ourselves about our world and each other are myriad, messy, untamable, and endlessly evolving.

It turns out, there is no narrative; there are many.

It is perhaps fitting that we close out this era of The Diplomat Magazine with an issue that explores the complexities of crafting narratives. From how authorities in China have weaponized, re-scripted, and deeply entangled the country’s memory of World War II in the government’s present-day struggles for legitimacy, identity, and power; to even more recent, though no less complex, memories of the fall of Kabul, and an Afghanistan that existed for a brief period of time before reverting back to a prior era; to the seemingly mundane work of leading ASEAN, a consensus-driven network of states, in a time of great power rivalry and the rending of many traditional narratives about power and potential.

Our cover story explores the intricacies of historical memory regarding World War II in East Asia – always of importance, but particularly apt this year, which marks the 80th anniversary of the war’s end. Zheng Wang, the director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies and a professor at the School of Diplomacy and International Relations in Seton Hall University, details how the war became a key building block in national narratives in China under the Chinese Communist Party. Wang argues that differing approaches to wartime and postwar history also form a crucial thread in the identity conflict fueling the Taiwan Strait crisis. “In China and East Asia today,” he concludes, “memory is not just about the past – it is destiny.”

Turning to an anniversary closer in the sweep of history, but no less poignant, Freshta Jalalzai, an Afghan-American journalist, looks at the reality of life in Kabul four years after it was conquered by the Taliban. Equally important, she explains how Afghanistan’s capital today compares to the period before August 2021. Kabul under the Republic was a dangerous and at times grim place, plagued by violence; under the Taliban, the war has finally ended. But in its place, a recent visitor to Kabul told Jalalzai, “is something harder to name: an aching stillness” caused by the suffocating restrictions now in place, especially on women and girls. Any discussion of the reality of life under the Taliban must encompass both present abuses and the intense suffering that preceded the Taliban takeover. “Kabul did not fall; it endures,” Jalalzai insists. “Four years ago, what fell was a government in Kabul, nothing more, nothing less…” Even so, “Kabul will never be the same, for part of its soul has been displaced.”

Finally we turn to ASEAN. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has rooted his country’s turn at the ASEAN helm in the traditional concepts of centrality and nonalignment. But as China pursues deeper bilateral engagement with ASEAN members and the United States exacts economic punishment across the same region, these principles are being tested. Siau Lim Chong, a freelance journalist based in Malaysia, asks: has Anwar’s proclaimed “policy of nonalignment” for ASEAN become a firmly established principle, or is it a matter of diplomatic rhetoric? At a time when great power rivalry is roaring back into style, can ASEAN hedge its way through an increasingly polarized world?

This will be the last issue of The Diplomat Magazine.

As we reintegrate the magazine back into the website – and open new avenues for reaching our readers, listeners, and viewers – we can promise you this: The many narratives shaping Asia will continue to find a home in our pages. Our mission remains as it has always been: to know the Asia-Pacific in all its complexity. Thank you for reading the magazine for the last 11 years, and we hope you will continue to follow us on the website and beyond.