Books published by ISEAS

Malaysia pulled itself back from the brink on 9 May 2018, when the majority of its voting population decided to topple the Barisan Nasional government that had been in power for over 60 years. This present volume discusses some of the challenges facing the new government, and the Malaysian population in general, now that the Barisan Nasional has imploded.

The triumph of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy at the 2015 election was supposed to mark the consolidation of a reformist trajectory for Myanmar society. What has followed has not proved so straightforward. This book takes stock of the mutations, continuities and fractures at the heart of today's political and economic transformations. We ask: What has changed under a democratically elected government? Where are the obstacles to reform? And is there scope to foster a more prosperous and inclusive Myanmar? With the peace process faltering, over 1 million people displaced by recent violence, and ongoing army dominance in key areas of decision-making, the chapters in this volume identify areas of possible reform within the constraints of Myanmar's hybrid civil-military governance arrangements. This latest volume in the Myanmar Update Series from the Australian National University continues a long tradition of intense, critical engagement with political, economic and social questions in one of Southeast Asia's most complicated countries. At a time of great uncertainty and anxiety, the 13 chapters of Myanmar Transformed? offer new and alternative ways to understand Myanmar and its people.

Brings together the work of a group of leading Thai intellectuals to equip readers to anticipate and understand the developments that lie ahead for Thailand. Contributors offer findings and perspectives both on the disorienting period following the Thai coup of May 2014 and on fundamental challenges to the country and its institutions.

Increasing tensions in the South China Sea have propelled the dispute to the top of the Asia-Pacific's security agenda. Featuring some of the world's leading experts on Asian security, this volume explores the central drivers of the dispute and examines the positions and policies of the main actors including China, Taiwan, the Southeast Asian claimants, America and Japan.

Provides complete, yet non-technical, analyses of production fragmentation effects and thus targets a wide range of readers -- including academics, researchers, policy makers, students, entrepreneurs, and anyone who is interested in this subject. It investigates the economic impacts of production fragmentation in Southeast Asia with a focus on Thailand's experience as an emerging global hub.

Gathers essays from admirers and friends who add their own contributions on legal pluralism, transnationalism and culture in Asia. The book opens with an account of M.B. Hooker's colourful and prolific career. The authors then approach legal pluralism through legal theory, legal anthropology, comparative law, law and religion, constitutional law, and Islamic art.

Written by two Burmese researchers, this study investigates the underlying factors behind the ceasefires, explores the nature of the secretive agreements, and identifies the consequences affecting stakeholders in the larger context of peacebuilding, political settlement, democratisation, and the state-building process.

This volume seeks to foreground a "borderless" history and geography of South, Southeast, and East Asian littoral zones that would be maritime-focused, and thereby explore the ancient connections and dynamics of interaction that favoured the encounters among the cultures found throughout the region stretching from the Indian Ocean littorals to the Western Pacific, from the early historical period to the present. Transcending the artificial boundaries of macro-regions and nation-states, and trying to bridge the arbitrary divide between (inherently cosmopolitan) "high" cultures (e.g. Sanskritic, Sinitic, or Islamicate) and "local" or "indigenous" cultures, this multidisciplinary volume explores the metaphor of Monsoon Asia as a vast geo-environmental area inhabited by speakers of numerous language phyla, which for millennia has formed an integrated system of littorals where crops, goods, ideas, cosmologies, and ritual practices circulated on the sea-routes governed by the seasonal monsoon winds. The collective body of work presented in the volume describes Monsoon Asia as an ideal theatre for circulatory dynamics of cultural transfer, interaction, acceptance, selection, and avoidance, and argues that, despite the rich ethnic, linguistic and sociocultural diversity, a shared pattern of values, norms, and cultural models is discernible throughout the region.

Gerald de Cruz's life overlapped many of the spheres of Singapore's history after World War II. This book seeks to portray his place in time, particularly for younger Singaporeans who did not live in an era that has inaugurated the history of independent Singapore.

Indonesia was founded on the ideal of the "Sovereignty of the People", which suggests the pre-eminence of people's rights to access, use and control land to support their livelihoods. Yet, many questions remain unresolved. The contributors to this volume presents case studies from across the archipelago.

The creation of ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 1992 and decentralization in 1999 mark the state restructuring in Indonesia. This book analyses the impact of state restructuring on regional economic development in Indonesia between 1993 and 2010. Regional economic analysis shows persistent and severe regional disparities throughout the period.