Maritime piracy continues to persist as a significant phenomenon manifesting a range of social, historical, geo-political, security and economic issues. Today, the waters of Southeast Asia serve as the dominant region for the occurrence of piracy and the challenges it poses to regional security and Malacca Straits security. As a second installment within the Series on Maritime Issues and Piracy…
This book examines the impact of China's rise on the strategic dimension in East Asian international politics and security. We attempt to address and analyze the following set of questions. First , how has China's strategic approach to its international relations in East Asia evolved? How successful has China been able to consolidate its strategic position in the region? How have other regional…
Over the course of the half century from 1865 to 1915, the British and the Dutch delineated colonial spheres in the process of creating new frontiers. This book analyzes the development of these frontiers in Insular Southeast Asia as well as the accompanying smuggling activities of the opium traders, currency runners and human traffickers who pierced such newly drawn borders with growing succes…
Pacific Asia faces environmental challenges ranging from pollution and rapid population growth to increasing water, energy and food scarcity. To what extent will these issues shape the regional security agenda? This paper argues that, in themselves, environmental difficulties are unlikely to be the primary cause of major conflict between the states. Nonetheless, Pacific Asia suffers from many t…
With Cambodia's admission on 30 April 1999, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) finally incorporated all ten South-East Asian states. But ASEAN in 1999 is a pale imitation of the organisation which emerged from the Cold War as a model regional institution. Since July 1997, the enlarged Association has faced unprecedented challenges. Its members are beset with economic difficulti…
APEC is a unique organization that promotes economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. It remains an informal intergovernmental organization that provides a useful platform for leaders, ministers, businessmen and experts to discuss regional issues on a regular basis. This book examines APECs accomplishments in recent years and the challenges it faces in the new century. These challenges i…
This book is an attempt to answer this question, one may find that ASEAN-not just the ASEAN members that have claims to little pieces of land and vast waters of the South China Sea, not just individual ASEAN members, but ASEAN as a whole - has an abiding interest in peace and stability in this region and in freedom of navigation in and overflight above the South China Sea. Much of ASEAN's comme…
Examines the dynamics of regionalism in Eastern Asia. Japan's diplomatic history as well as the heritage of its conquest of Eastern Asia is examined alongside China's cultural geography, paradigmatic dynamics, and intra-regional economics. Ties between East Asia and Southeast Asia, as well as the influence of American military power and European integration are also considered.
After a bloody revolution of more than four years (1945- 1949), Indonesia won her freedom from Holland with the transfer of sovereignty to Indonesia in December 1949. Holland had colonized Indonesia for more than three hundred years. What is now called Indonesia was formerly "The Netherlands East Indies" and consisted, according to the Dutch Constitution, of the whole of the Netherlands East In…
This book is the outcome of some of those discussions that took place at last year's meeting, the lasting energy and unresolved debates that emanated from it, and ISIS Malaysia's continued commitment to raise the bar of the conversations surrounding ASEAN.