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Martin Stuart-Fox

Portrait of Martin   Stuart-Fox

Martin Stuart-Fox (b. 1939) is a retired Australian professor and journalist specialized in the history of Southeast Asia, primarily Laos, and in Buddhism philosophy and practice. A field reporter for UPI in Laos in 1963, he moved to Vietnam in 1965 – 1966, covering the war along with his brother David Stuart-Fox, who later on settled down in Bali and wrote extensively about Indonesia.

A marine biologist initially, he was sent in Laos in 1963 as an agricultural extension officer by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Two years later, he joined UPI news agency and was assigned to cover the war in Vietnam, sharing a house in Saigon with other young journalists and photographers, like Steve Northup, Simon Dring, Tim Page and Joe Galloway. In 1972, he covered the birth of the State of Bangladesh in Dacca for UPI.

An emeritus professor at the University of Queensland, Stuart-Fox contributed several books on Southeast Asian religion and politics, on Laos and on ​“Pol Pot’s Kampuchea”.

Martin-Stuart-Fox-left-David-Stuart-Fox-and-Tim-Page-300x213.jpg#asset:5580:squareMediumFit
Martin Stuart-Fox, left, with David Stuart-Fox and war correspondent Tim Page (Photo Mekong Review)

Publications

  1. [ed. & contrib.] Contemporary Laos: studies in the politics and society of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press and New York, St Martin’s Press, 1982, 367 pp. 
  2. “Resolving the Kampuchean problem: The case for an alternative regional initiative”. Contemporary Southeast Asia, 4(2), 1982, 210 – 255. [PDF]
  3. [with Ung Bunheang] The Murderous Revolution: life and death in Pol Pot’s Kampuchea, Sydney, Alternative Publishing Cooperative, 1985, 203pp. repub. 1986, White Orchid Press; updated edition Bangkok 1998.
  4. Laos: politics, economics and society, London, Frances Pinter Publishers and Boulder, Lynn Reinner Publishers, 220p, 1986.
  5. [with Rod Bucknell] The Twilight Language: explorations in Buddhist symbolism and meditation, London, Curzon Press and New York, St Martin’s Press. 233pp, 1986. [Italian translation, Rome, Ubaldini Editore, 1997; paperback edition, London: Curzon Press, 1994].
  6. Vietnam in Laos: Hanoi’s model for Kampuchea, Claremont, Keck Center for International Strategic Studies, 52 p, 1987.
  7. “The Kampuchean problem: Time for realism”, World Review, 27(2), 1988, 56 – 72. 
  8. “Conferences on conflict resolution in Kampuchea” Asian Studies Association of Australia, Review 12 (3), 1989, 58 – 60.
  9. “The agony of Cambodia” in C. Mackerras, ed. Eastern Asia: An introductory history. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1992. 556 – 570 {revised for 2nd (US) edition 1995, 3rd edition 2000].
  10. Historical Dictionary of Laos, 1st ed with Mary Kooyman, Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. 258 p, 1992; 2nd ed., Lanham, MD, Scarecrow Press. 527 p, 2001; 3rd ed. Lanham, MD, Scarecrow Press. 485 pp, 2008.; 4th ed with Simon Creak and Martin Rathie, Lanham, MD, Scarecrow Press, 692 p, 2023. 
  11. “Conflicting conceptions of the state: Siam, France and Vietnam in the late nineteenth century”, Journal of the Siam Society (JSS) vol. 82, 1994, p 135 – 144. 
  12. Buddhist Kingdom Marxist State: the making of modern Laos, 1st ed Bangkok, White Lotus Press. 310 p, 1996; 2nd ed Bangkok, White Lotus Press, 419 p, 2002.
  13. A History of Laos, Cambridge, New York and Melbourne, Cambridge University Press. 253 p, 1997 [updated Japanese and Thai translations, 2010].
  14. The Lao Kingdom of Lan Xang: Rise and Decline, Bangkok, White Lotus Press, 200 p, 1998.
  15. A Short History of China and Southeast Asia: Tribute, Trade and Influence, NSW, Allen & Unwin, 278 p, 2003.
  16. [with photos by Steve Northup] Naga Cities of the Mekong: a guide to the temples, legends and history of Laos, Singapore, Media Masters, 128 p, 2006.
  17. “The Persistence of Political Culture in Laos and Cambodia” Sudostasien Aktuell, no. 3, 2008, 33 – 57. [PDF]
  18. [with Somsanouk Mixay, photos by Steve Northup) Festivals of Laos, Chiang Mai, Silkworm Press, 92 p, 2010.
  19. The A to Z of Laos, Lanham, MD, Scarecrow Press, 485 p, 2010.
  20. “Symbolism in city planning in Cambodia from Angkor to Phnom Penh” (with Paul Reeve) Journal of the Siam Society 99, 2011, 105 – 138. [PDF]
  21. ‘City planning in Cambodia’, Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures (with Paul Reeve), 2014, 1259 – 1268. [PDF]
  22. [with Trude Jacobsen] ​“Power and political culture in Cambodia”, Asia Research Institute Working Paper Series 200, 2013. [PDF]
  23. “Sihanouk’s legacy”, New Mandala 26 February 2013.
  24. “The Origins of Causal Cognition in Early Hominins”, Philosophy and Biology 30, 2, 2015, p 247 – 266.
  25. Numerous articles on Laos, Cambodia, China, Southeast Asia.

  26. “Major transitions in human evolutionary history”, World Futures, 2022.

    Engaging Asia: Essays on Laos and Beyond in Honour of Martin Stuart-Fox, ed. by Delsey Goldston, Singapore, NIAS Press, 2019.

    Martin Stuart-Fox website.