This book examines three consecutive famines in Cambodia during the 1970s, exploring both continuities and discontinuities of all three. Cambodia experienced these consecutive famines against the backdrop of four distinct governments: the Kingdom of Cambodia (1953-1970), the U.S.-supported Khmer Republic (1970-1975), the communist Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979), and the Vietnamese-controlled People's Republic of Kampuchea (1979-1989). Famine in Cambodia documents how state-induced famine constituted a form of sovereign violence and operated against the backdrop of sweeping historical transformations of Cambodian society. It also highlights how state-induced famines should not be solely framed from the vantage point in which famine occurs but should also focus on the geopolitics of state-induced famines, as states other than Cambodia conditioned the famine in Cambodia. Drawing on an array of theorists, including Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, and Achille Mbembe, James A. Tyner provides a conceptual framework to bring together geopolitics, biopolitics, and necropolitics in an effort to expand our understanding of state-induced famines. Tyner argues that state-induced famine constitutes a form of sovereign violence-a form of power that both takes life and disallows life.

"Famine in the Remaking examines the relationship between the reorganization of food systems and large-scale food crises through a comparative historical analysis of three famines: Hawaii in the 1820s, Madagascar in the 1920s, and Cambodia in the 1970s. This examination identifies the structural transformations that make food systems more vulnerable to failure"--

"In their carefully researched book, Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland present the most comprehensive account of the famine to date, examining not only the origins and aftermath of the crisis but also the regime's response to outside aid and the effect of its current policies on the country's economic future. Their study begins by considering the root causes of the famine, weighing the effects of the decline in the availability of food against its poor distribution. Then it takes a close look at the aid effort, addressing the difficulty of monitoring assistance within the country, and concludes with an analysis of current economic reforms and strategies of engagement."--BOOK JACKET.

History.

In April 1975 Ngak Chhay Heng and his family loaded their car with their personal possessions, pushed it 20 kilometres from Phnom Penh, discarded anything that differentiated them from peasant farmers, and disappeared under the dark shadow of the Khmer Rouge for three years, eight months and 20 days. For twelve of her 21 years Chan Phaloeun lived with war and tyranny. At the end of the Khmer Rouge period she was too ill to walk and had been expected to die. Yet in the next few years she graduated from university in Russia and became a key research leader helping to restore rice production in Cambodia. This book is about people and their challenges in rescuing Cambodia from famine. It is an inspiring example of how the lives of millions were permanently improved by relatively few 'aid dollars' when governments, aid agencies and NGOs co-operated. In less than fifteen years the starving nation learned to feed itself as a few expatriates and many Cambodians put their collective efforts to the task. This is their story, and as far as possible it is told in their own words.