ABSTRACT
Nevertheless, from the perspective of formal-legal sovereignty, those state entities that emerged on the demise of colonialism have proved surprisingly resilient. With the exception of Vietnam – the division of which between 1954 and 1975 can be variously interpreted as the temporary expression of external intervention or as the result of competing national visions – though severely tested, none of the post-colonial states have disintegrated into component nationalities. Singapore’s expulsion from Malaysia after its brief incorporation between 1963 and 1965 in many ways reflects the continuity of the British decision in 1946 to re-constitute the island as a separate colony. Secessionist movements have thus not achieved their objectives. In the wider region, the creation of Bangladesh is an exception to this generalization, as is the continued persistence of a Chinese state on Taiwan, though without the powerful patronage, respectively, of India in 1971 and of the United States from 1950, it is doubtful whether either would have come into existence. Even in the Southwest Pacific, despite problematic state performance, none of the post-colonial states have dissolved or fractured, though many have suffered major turmoil. Consequently these state entities have been the enduring foundation of regional order.
