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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
The basic goals of foreign policy have not differed
from one
regime to another. National security or survival are
fundamental
concerns, and both the RLG and the LPDR have striven to
preserve a
Laotian state, even though their philosophies for
organizing and
serving the people differed fundamentally. In the 1990s,
ideology
shifted away from relentless Marxism-Leninism to "state
capitalism"
and single-party "democracy." Such formulations place Laos
outside
any rigid ideological camp and leave the national agenda
open to
the general promise of economic development. Officially,
the
government has dedicated itself to a foreign policy of
peace,
"independence, friendship and non-alignment," with the
instrument
for achieving those conditions being the LPRP.
In the 1940s, the ICP provided the most assertive
challenge to
colonialism. With the ending of French and United States
dominance
over the Laotian peoples, the communist-inspired LPRP has
wrestled
with the next challenge--economic and national
development. The
success of that undertaking and the survival of the party
that has
assumed it remains in the balance in the 1990s. The key to
success,
however, lies in developing and maintaining fruitful
foreign
relations.
Data as of July 1994
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