Presents selected works of Michael Leifer, the doyen of Southeast Asian Studies, who died in 2001. This book includes works on the Southeast Asian region - ASEAN, regional order and conflict, great power policies towards the region, maritime security in Southeast Asia, and studies of the domestic policies of individual Southeast Asian countries.
Southeast Asia has sometimes been portrayed as a static place. In the ninth to fourteenth centuries, however, the region experienced extensive trade, bitter wars, kingdoms rising and falling, ethnic groups on the move, the construction of impressive monuments and debate about profound religious issues. Readers of this volume will learn much of how people lived in Southeast Asia five hundred to one thousand years ago; the region today cannot be comprehended without reference to the seminal developments of that period.
This book focuses on the activity of the Soviet Union in Southeast Asia and the effects of Soviet policy on the region from 1969 to the time of first publication in 1986. In particular, Leszek Buszynski examines the rivalry between the Soviet Union and China, Soviet presence in Vietnam, and the responsive efforts of surrounding regions towards collective security. U.S. policy in the region is a key consideration, particularly in terms of American attempts to placate China and encourage Japan to assist in the defence of the region. With a concluding assessment of regional trends and possible outcomes, this is an important and valuable work for students and scholars with an interest in the history and politics of international diplomacy in Southeast Asia.
Southeast Asia, although not garnering the headlines of ten to twenty years ago, is important in global politics. Vietnam's domination of Indochina, for example, has polarized the region, given the Soviet Union new regional access, and magnified the military threat to Thailand. Insurgency movements supported by the radical Left or Right continue to plague governments. The Strait of Malacca, the major sea-lane through Southeast Asia, provides primary access for the U.S. Pacific fleet to the Indian Ocean and the Middle East and is Japan's oil lifeline. U.S. commercial and military interests remain strong in the Philippines and are expanding in Indonesia, the world's fifth largest country (with a population approaching 170 million people), whereas Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore are sources for investment, raw materials, and potential markets. Thailand, once closely allied with the United States, has again renewed those ties in the face of Vietnam's expansion. This comprehensive, up-to-date textbook analyzes Southeast Asia in the context of regional and global political systems, both traditional and contemporary. After looking at the traditional patterns of interstate relations in the region, Professor McCloud shows that Southeast Asia has been and continues to be dependent on the global system. However, he also identifies a "neotraditional current" in contemporary Southeast Asian politics, as elements of traditional beliefs and values reassert themselves in policy and practice, redefine the patterns of interstate behavior in the region, and set the limits to dependence on the global system. The book is intended as a primary text for courses on the history or politics of Asia or Southeast Asia, regional development and integration, and the role of Southeast Asia in world politics. It will also be useful in survey courses in Asian studies, comparative politics, and Third World development.
A detailed investigation of the contemporary Philippine Left, focusing on the political challenges and dilemmas that confronted activists following the disintegration of the Marcos regime and the reestablishment of electoral democracy under Corazon Aquino. The authors focus on such varied topics as peasant politics, urban social movements, purges and executions, and Marxist theory.
Southeast Asian Affairs, of which there are now thirty in the series, is an annual review of significant developments and trends in the region. The contributions can be divided into two braod categories. There are those which provide an analysis of major developments during 2002 in individual Southeast Asian countries and in the region generally. Then there are the theme articles of a more specialised nature which deal with topical problems of concern.
This book was written between 1981 and 1986, was first published in 1987, and has been out of print since. The Chinese version of it by Yan Bao et al., Zhongguo chuantong xiaoshuo zai yazhou, which also published in 1989, is also out of print. Since then more works especially in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Western languages have appeared which are mainly concerned with cultural exchanges between China and the countries of East Asia. Moreover a new interest has arisen among scholars from various countries on what has been termed “Asian translation traditions” and conferences are regularly organized on this topic. Judging from this rising interest in translation history, this book on traditional Chinese fiction in Asia, which sets the question of Asian translations into a general framework, and so far has no equivalent, is still of service to researchers.
