Bücher der Reihe Critical Studies of the Asia-Pacific

This collection presents a varied picture of the state of democracy in Asia, revealing unique findings from a project entitled the 'Asia Democracy Initiative' which explored the role of ordinary people in democratization through the rise of expressive social values in Indonesia, South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand.

The book addresses the urgent need for rethinking the geopolitics and ecology in the Himalaya, by emphasising the entanglements between these two factors. Most international relations analyses of the Himalaya emphasize the central role of the region¿s states and their great power struggles. By reducing the region to its state actors, however, we miss the intense more-than-human diversity of the region, and the crucial role that the mountains play in the global environment. In doing so, the book makes a major contribution to international relations theory by drawing on insights from international political ecology. It first theorises international political ecology and examines the Himalaya as a global region, before moving looking at the international aspects of political ecology in the Himalaya through key areas of the mountains where international politics and ecology are deeply, inextricably linked. It presents three detailed case studies of different environmentaland political issues in the Himalaya: icecaps (the India-China-Pakistan boundary dispute in the western Himalaya), foothills and forests (the Nepal-Bhutan-Sikkim borderlands), and rivers (the India-China Bangladesh dispute over the Brahmaputra River basin). Each case study draws on a mix of source materials including fieldwork, government sources, foreign policy discourse, Himalayan ethnographies, and environmental and ecological sciences scholarship.

This volume takes readers beneath the surface of the South China Sea by exploring critical but under-researched issues related to the maritime territorial disputes.

By thoroughly reviewing and deploying the 'second image reversed' approach and the relational concept of state power analytical approaches, Ziso challenges the Western-centric Weberian conceptualization of state.

The main argument is that regional and international trends of securitisation and criminalisation of irregular migration, often associated with framing the issue in terms of migrant smuggling and human trafficking, have intensified carceral border regimes and produced greater precarity for migrants.

Hundt and Uttam go beyond both the 'varieties of capitalism' approach, which is mainly used to analyse Western capitalism, and the 'developmental state' thesis, which is the primary framework for analysing capitalism in Asia, and propose a new and innovative approach to the emergence of capitalist systems.

Asia's rising power and wealth offer its many oppressed ethnic minorities hope for greater political freedom and an end to violence. But the reality of this hope is cast into doubt by acute separatist conflict. This book provides fresh and factual assessments of separatist struggles and prospects for conflict resolution in eight countries of Asia.

This volume explores the domestic and transnational considerations associated with Indonesia's ascent, referring to its rise in terms of hard and soft power and its likely trajectory in the future. The range of contributors analyse economic resources, religious harmony, security, regional relations, leadership and foreign policy.

Successful reform of the security sector has been regarded as pivotal for a successful transition from authoritarianism to democracy by Western donors. A global cast of contributors examines SSR in a variety of policy fields in Southeast Asia, paying specific attention to the adaption of 'Western' reform concepts by local actors.

Vietnam's political development has entered an extraordinary, if indeterminate, phase. Comprising contributions from leading Vietnam scholars, this volume comprehensively explores the core aspects of Vietnam's politics, providing a cutting-edge analysis of politics in one of East Asia's least understood countries.

The contributors engage with a range of critical and contemporary issues of two key societies in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia and Malaysia. These include foreign policy and national security; multiculturalism and citizenship; the middle class; global governance; migrants and international students.

This book emphasizes the importance of production politics, or struggles in the workplace between workers and their employers, for understanding migrant labour regimes in Asia and the Gulf.

Since the late 1990s, the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) has countered a myriad of 'outlaw' threats at sea including piracy, terrorism, the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and the threat posed by 'rogue states'. Japan's innovative strategy has transformed maritime security governance in Southeast Asia and beyond.

Drawing on the fields of political economy and historical sociology, Jones dispels the overwhelming consensus among scholars that members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) never interfere in the internal affairs of other states, and pioneers a new approach to the understanding of regional politics in Southeast Asia.

Investigates the World Bank's promotion of market-led development in the underdeveloped world and the impact that this promotion has upon citizenship. This book looks at this subject using case studies drawn from Southeast Asia, one of the world's most diverse regions.

Paul comprehensively analyzes the meaning of democratization in Southeast Asia's nation-states and how it relates to the development of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN.) In doing so, he questions the viability of ASEAN and its potential to move towards a common market and community.

A comparison of Singapore and Taiwan presents an interesting case study for those wishing to understand how small states struggle to overcome their strategic disadvantage.

How should we understand the many reports that poverty is the mother of innovation in India? Birtchnell traces the various discourses and counter-discourses around an Indian way of working and illustrates how differences in the international dimensions of austerity allow India's knowledge economy to prosper.

This second edition in paper back offers in a single comprehensive volume the misdeeds and scandals that occurred during Mahathir Mohamad two decades as prime minister of Malaysia and afterwards. It includes Mahathir's response to the first edition and engages with the debate about Mahathir's legacy.

Katsumata demonstrates that something interesting is taking place inside the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). He shows that an association of minor powers in Southeast Asia is promoting its cooperative security norm, and influencing the policies of its external partners. Thus, the ARF is one of the important pathways to regional security.

Drawing on Foucauldian theory and 'social harm' paradigms, Naughton offers a radical redefinition of miscarriages of justice from a critical perspective. This book uncovers the limits of the entire criminal justice process and challenges the dominant perception that miscarriages of justices are rare and exceptional cases of wrongful imprisonment.

In light of the Asian financial crisis of 1997, Lai examines whether East Asian economies converged onto the liberal market model by studying the evolution of the financial sectors of Korea, Malaysia and Thailand. This includes sectoral diversification, the nature of competition, and the regulatory and supervisory frameworks.

This book studies the challenges for Indonesia, once a miracle economy, as it faces premature deindustrialisation, rising inequality and domestic and external factors impacting its export-oriented industrialization.

Shahar Hameiri argues that state building interventions are creating a new form of transnationally regulated statehood. Using case-studies from the Asia-Pacific, he analyzes the politics of state building and the implications for contemporary statehood and the global order.

Many of the most vulnerable sections of East Asian populations still face tremendous challenges in their daily lives, have yet to enjoy the rewards of the Asian Century, and may even be further imperiled as a result of the forces of development.

This book analyzes the social forces and political coalitions driving regional integration projects in Asia with a focus on ASEAN and Indonesian conglomerates.

This book sets out to discuss what kind of 'middle power' Australia is, and whether its identity as a middle power negatively influences its relationship with Asia. It looks at the history of the middle power concept, develops three concepts of middle power status and examines Australia's relationships with China, Japan and Indonesia as a focus.

This book examines the complex relations between Joseon Korea (1392-1910) and Ming/Qing China in history, and reveals their contemporary implications for the nature of a China-dominated order in East Asia and the relations between China and the middle powers in the region.