EDGS Book Talk: "Bad Lieutenants" with Andrew Mertha

Join the Roberta Buffett Institute and its Equality Development & Globalization Studies (EDGS) program for a public talk with Andrew Mertha, the George and Sadie Hyman Professor of China Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Mertha will present his new book, Bad Lieutenants: The Khmer Rouge, United Front, and Class Struggle, 1970–1997, which examines how the Khmer Rouge remained a force to be reckoned with even after the fall of Democratic Kampuchea—and of the men behind the movement's durability. Mertha argues that the Khmer Rouge's successes and failures were both driven by a refusal to dilute its revolutionary vision. Rather than take the moderate tack required for viable governance, it pivoted between two political strategies: united front and class struggle. Through the stories of three key leaders—Ieng Sary, Son Sen, and Ta Mok—Mertha tracks the movement's shifting from one strategy to the other until its dissolution in the 1990s.

Doors will open at 12:00 p.m., and lunch will begin at 12:15 p.m.

About the author

Andrew Mertha is the George and Sadie Hyman Professor of China Studies, Director of the China Studies Program, and Director of the SAIS China Global Research Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). From 2020 to 2021, Mertha served as the Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs and International Research Cooperation at SAIS. He is a former professor of government at Cornell University and an assistant professor of political science at Washington University in St. Louis.

Mertha specializes in Chinese bureaucratic politics, political institutions, and the domestic and foreign policy process. More recently, he has extended his research interests to include Cambodia. Mertha has written four books. He has provided public testimony for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, briefed the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and has accompanied a U.S. congressional staff delegation to Beijing, Xinjiang, and Shanghai to discuss issues of terrorism and narcotics trafficking.

Please note that 720 University Place is not an ADA-accessible space. Increasing physical access to buildings and facilities is a goal of the University, but not all buildings and venues have been updated at this time.

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