Autobiographical Statement!
Punctuality has never been a strength of mine. As a matter of fact, neither has been discipline nor efficient time management. However, over committing to unusually large of amounts of really unnecessary and pointless extracurricular activities is a specialty of mine. An plethora of excess responsibilities and skills are, in fact, my bread and butter, and the stuff I thrive on. At this point, I know what you are thinking, mostly because it is what I had been thinking for some time now, especially after enrolling in the year long thesis seminar class with Professor Lee Quinby. It is fairly obvious that my deficiencies are painfully complimentary with my tendencies, that they are overly counterproductive, most important of all, that they cannot lead to a sustainable lifestyle. Suffice to say, I am at a Crisis!
Did you know the Chinese expression of the word ‘crisis’ is a combination of two characters? The First is danger and the second opportunity. Now, what does this seemingly random fact has anything to do with my predicament or even my thesis project, you wonder. Am I spinning wild tales? And leading you in circuitous routes to nowhere? I doubt it. To be honest, I am not quite certain why I chose to include it but I sense it is relevant and important. Rest assured, it will come to me in due time. Now let’s move on to the belly of this autobiographical statement.
My paper topic is an extension of a paper I wrote for my Modern China class last fall. That paper dealt with the historical causes of the Sino-Indian border disputes that culminated into a short border war fought in 1962. The war coincided with the Cuban Missile Crisis, the greatest point of tension and the closest the United States and the Soviet Union came to nuclear war in the Cold War. Because of this overlap, the Sino-Indian Border War does not receive much attention in its impact in expanding the Cold War in the Asian continent to new heights, and dramatically changing the geo-political power dynamics of the region.
Until then, India followed a policy of non-alignment, refusal to ally with any of the superpowers. Prior to the war, China had its own limitations in activity in the Cold War. With the hostile Sino-Soviet relations and an ongoing American embargo, China became entangled in the Cold War to protect its territories. Considering these conditions, it was not in the best interest for both China and India to not go to war, yet they did. So why did Nehru chose military action despite Zhou Enlai’s reassurance to resolve the conflict diplomatically? How did it change Sino-Indian relations in the interplay of the Cold War? In what ways, the involvement of the international community worsened or stabilized the region? Can the border war be classified as an unconventional proxy war? These are questions come up upon a closer re-examination of the 1962 border war.
The war can be classified as a crisis. According to the Chinese derivation of the word, the war was without a doubt dangerous in destabilizing the region but also presented set of opportunities to re-define their boundaries. As fledgling nations, Indian and China were compelled to protect their territorial sovereignty so the border war exemplifies the dangerous opportunities for the two Asian powers.
By that token, this thesis project resembles a similar scenario, albeit in an exponentially smaller scale, in my own life. The thesis project and all the other things have I gotten involved in are a set of dangerous opportunities. Will I be able to get my act together and complete this project in due time or am I going to let my tendencies dictate, as they have prior, to disaster? I have a lot of on my plate, some responsibilities important, others scarcely so but nonetheless needs to be done. It is a gamble and sheer recklessness on my part but I wish to grow through this endeavor, and learn to better manage my life and activities. To mature as a researcher would be wonderful but I would be happier still if I matured as a person because as Davi said so eloquently in class (and I paraphrase), research is not only a skill, it is a lifestyle. Don’t let me tell you of my successes or failures. You, faithful readers, are the ones who will pass the ultimate judgment.
