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This book seeks to explain two core paradoxes associated with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): How have diverse states hung together and stabilized relations in the face of competing interests, divergent preferences, and arguably weak cooperation? How has a group of lesser, self-identified Southeast Asian powers gone beyond its original regional purview to shape the form and content of Asian Pacific and East Asian regionalisms? According to Alice Ba, the answers lie in ASEAN's founding arguments: arguments that were premised on an assumed regional disunity. She demonstrates how these arguments draw critical causal connections that make Southeast Asian regionalism a necessary response to problems, give rise to its defining informality and consensus-seeking process, and also constrain ASEAN's regionalism. Tracing debates about ASEAN's intra- and extra-regional relations over four decades, she argues for a process-driven view of cooperation, sheds light on intervening processes of argument and debate, and highlights interacting material, ideational, and social forces in the construction of regions and regionalisms.

This book proposes a selective approach for states with more advanced human rights protection to establish a human rights court for Southeast Asia. It argues the inclusive approach currently employed by ASEAN to set up a human rights body covering all member states cannot produce a strong regional human rights mechanism. The mosaic of Southeast Asia reveals great diversity and high complexity in political regimes, human rights practice and participation by regional states in the global legal human rights framework. Cooperation among ASEAN members to protect and promote human rights remains limited. The time-honored principle of non-interference and the “ASEAN Way” still predominate in relations within ASEAN. These factors combine to explain why the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights is unlikely to be strong and effective in changing and promoting regional human rights protection.

China, India and Japan are among the biggest players in the global economy today. However, Asia's future depends not just on its impressive growth rates or its immense natural resources and human talent; rather, it also hinges on the quality of leadership provided by the major nations and associations of Asia, and their ability to overcome persisting rivalries and respond to new transnational challenges.Conflict and cooperation are the two central themes of this book — a collection of commentaries and opinion pieces by Professor Amitav Acharya from various newspapers and publications from 2002 to 2006. It covers a wide range of issues such as the rise of China, Asia's leadership legacy and the role of ASEAN. Also discussed are the fate of democracy in Asia, and the implications of transnational dangers and the changing world order for Asia.Contents:China's Rise and the East Asian CommunityA Historical LegacyTransnational DangersASEAN: Regressing or Reinventing?Democracy and Regional OrderThe Changing World Order: Implications for AsiaReadership: Undergraduates, graduates, academics in Asian studies and political science. Government ministries and diplomats. General readers interested in current affairs and the Asian region.

For the most of the twentieth century, the country of Vietnam has served as a symbol of the bipolar system of rival ideological blocs that characterized the Cold War. As the conflict over communism waned in the 1980s, Vietnam faced the tough task of remaking itself as nation in the eyes of its people and of the world. This book chronicles the evolution of the Vietnamese state as we know it today. With the collapse of communist regimes in Europe, Vietnam witnessed the dissolution of the cornerstone of its policies toward the outside world. Fearing that a full commitment to deep integration in a globalizing world would lead to the collapse of their own current political system, the Vietnamese political elite made slow, cautious steps to involvement with the larger international community. By the year 2000, however, Vietnam had “taken the plunge” and opted for greater participation in the global economic system, leading to its membership in the World Trade Organization in 2006. This book illustrates that the politicians who took a limited approach to international involvement ultimately had condemned Vietnam to a permanent state of underdevelopment. It is only at the turn of the twenty-first century when the Vietnamese state began to relax its policies toward the international community that the nation began to experience a period of revitalization. Remarkably, these changes have happened without Vietnam losing its unique political identity as many had expected. It remains an authoritarian state, but offers far more breathing space to its citizens than in pre-reform era. Far from leading the nation to be absorbed into a Western-inspired development model, globalization has led to a complex domestic diversification and localization that has reinforced Vietnam's distinctive identity rather than obliterating it. The culmination of decades of research and cultural exchange, this book documents the unique story of the birth of a nation amidst the challenges of the post-Cold War era

Through a multi-disciplinary approach, this volume studies the management and settlement of conflict and disputes in East Asia. Conflict and disputes exist everywhere in human society. The management and settlement of them has become an imperative. This volume is a significant contribution to a broader understanding of the complexities involved in managing and settling disputes and conflicts at regional, inter-state and intra-state levels in the East Asian region. Drawing on expertise in Peace and Conflict, International Relations, and International Law the volume presents to the reader a general picture of how conflict can be managed at the international and regional levels through various mechanisms, in particular, through prominent regional organizations such as ASEAN. It then moves on to case studies at the regional level including inter-state and intra-state conflicts and disputes. The last part of the volume highlights how states resolve their maritime disputes. This has drawn much attention from the international community due to various factors such as the increasing demand for natural resources from the oceans. These disputes disrupt the smooth development of international relations as well as trigger tensions and confrontation between states.

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003'--T.p. verso.

In this book, Emmers addresses the key question: to what extent may the balance of power play a part in such cooperative security arrangements and in the calculations of the participants of ASEAN and the ART? He investigates the role of the power balance in detailed examinations of the creation of the forum, ASEAN's response to the Indochina conflict and the South China sea dispute.

Regionalism -- Indonesia. Political leadership -- Indonesia. Power (Social sciences) -- Indonesia. Indonesia -- Foreign relations. Indonesia -- Politics and government -- 21st century.

News & media coverage!Book Launch of Golden Dragon and Purple Phoenix - 3rd July 2013Many books have been written about the Chinese in Southeast Asia, but very few, if any, are written specifically about the multi-ethnic descendants of Chinese immigrants. Golden Dragon and Purple Phoenix is not about the diaspora per se of Chinese in Southeast Asia but about the impact of intermarriage between Chinese immigrants and the natives, that is, the intermingling of blood and the offspring from such unions — the influence they wielded on the society and environment they chose to live in. It is also about how they rose to high positions and their contributions to their societies. Some rose to become kings or king makers, others to become presidents, prime ministers, senior ministers, prominent businessmen, or religious leaders. Some openly declared their ancestry and are proud of their Chinese DNA, while others have forgotten their heritage and in their fervour to prove their allegiance to their country of birth, dissociate themselves, assertively through violence, indirectly through economic sanctions and various other means. In short, the multi-ethnic Chinese descendants form a unique community with unique cultural genes of its own, and these fresh and rarely-known stories about them in this book will be a good resource for historical researchers as well as fascinating reading materials for readers in general.With 14 years'experience as a journalist and a 29-year career as a politician and diplomat, Mr. Lee Khoon Choy has set foot on every land in Southeast Asia and observed closely the local life in each country. Mindful of his Hakka identity, Mr. Lee has a keen interest in multi-ethnic Chinese descendants in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia, etc.Contents:The Lokjins in ThailandThe Mestizos of the Philippines (???????)The Mingling of Chinese and Javanese Blood — The Peranakan (????)The Tayoke Kabya and the Kokangese in MyanmarThe Konkat-Cen in CambodiaThe Minh Huong (??) of VietnamSino-Laos and the Hmong (?) in LaosBaba (??) and Nyonya (??) in MalaysiaWesternised SingaporeansBrunei: Land of the Smiling PeopleReadership: General readers, academics, professionals and students who are interested in the history and culture of multi-ethnic Chinese descendants in ten Southeast Asian countries, including their language, lifestyle, influence as well as stories on prominent state leaders and business of Chinese heritage.

Japan faces significant challenges in both traditional and non-traditional areas of national security policy as the economic resurgence of China and the loss of US hegemonic clout significantly transform the strategic landscape of the Asia-Pacific region. How is Japan coping with this new global and regional politico-security environment? What strategic moves has it taken to best position itself for the future to maximize its global and regional influence? More importantly, how is Japan perceived within the region by traditionally close regional partners such as the US and Australia, by supporters in Southeast Asia, and by new competitors — most prominently China and India? What international role do these nations wish Japan to play? In this comprehensive volume, these crucial questions are explored in-depth by a group of scholars both distinguished and diverse.Contents:Traditional Security:Japan's Strategic Options? (Katahara Eiichi)The US–Japan Alliance in the 21st Century: A Chinese Perspective (Wang Jian Wei)China and Japan: Hot Economics, Cold Politics? (Li Mingjiang)Japan's Strategic Response to North Korea: Activistic Security Policy, Eroding Pacifism (Kim Sung Chull)A'United'Community in a Divided Region: Southeast Asia, Japan, China, and East Asian Community (Pavin Chachavalpongpun)India and Japan: Sharing Strategic Interests? (Arpita Mathur)Australia and Japan: Toward a Full Security Partnership? (David Walton)Non-Traditional Security:Japan's Human Security and Peace-building: Between Aspirations and Limitations (Lam Peng Er)Piracy and Maritime Security: Japan's Strategic Challenges (Sam Bateman)Japan and the G8/G20: A Global/Regional Strategy in Financial Governance (Joel Rathus)The Triple Disaster and Japan's Energy and Climate Change Policies (Purnendra Jain)Rethinking Security in Japan: In Search of a Post-'Postwar'Narrative (Satoh Haruko)Readership: Advanced undergraduate and graduate students of Japanese foreign relations and East Asian security; researchers interested in comparative security perspectives.