ABSTRACT
On the surface, Laos seems like an improbable place for a study of confl ict resolution. Politically speaking, for the 700 or so years of its existence, its longest period of peace lasted approximately fi fty-seven years. During its history, it has been under constant threat from various neighbours – from Thai, Burmese, Vietnamese, and Khmer empires, and the international presence of the French, Americans, Chinese, and Soviets. Religious artifacts have been stolen and re-stolen, monarchs starved and murdered, and monetary tribute has fl owed from its coffers to pay off powerful neighbours, sometimes even warlords. Still, as a nation that has been living under occupation, poverty, and general military and economic weakness for the past 300 years, it has somehow managed to survive, and is even beginning to show signs of health and strength. Even if the Vietnam War stripped it of its status as a kingdom, there is still a very strong Lao identity that delineates it from its Thai ethnic and linguistic family, and the Vietnamese political system to which it has such strong ties.
