Southeast Asia in the New International Era

The fifth edition of Southeast Asia in the New International Era highlights the dramatic political events sweeping the region in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Where economic boom and crisis dominated events in the 1990s, political development and instability defines much of the region today. The promise of democracy in Thailand continues to slide amidst the forces of populism, military coup d'état, constitutional crisis, and the politicization of the judiciary. Political freedom in Indonesia, by contrast, charts new territory as young democratic institutions strengthen. Vietnam’s single-party rule delivers ongoing economic promise at the cost of political liberalization while the politics of patronage inhibits Cambodia’s overall development. Burma’s military regime maintains its grip on power by suppressing political opponents and Malaysia keeps communalism at bay while its long-standing parliamentary majority appears increasingly fragile. In the Philippines, the patterns of personalism, corruption, and elite rule plague democratic political development while Singapore’s stable corporatist state stands in contrast to the struggling government of newly formed Timor-Leste. Occurring even as the U.S. War on Terror and China’s rise creates new challenges, these changes and others are analyzed in this new fifth edition.