Southeast Asian Affairs, first published in 1974, continues today to be required reading for not only scholars but the general public interested in in-depth analysis of critical cultural, economic and political issues in Southeast Asia. In this annual review of the region, renowned academics provide comprehensive and stimulating commentary.

“Southeast Asian Affairs, first published in 1974, continues today to be required reading for not only scholars but the general public interested in in-depth analysis of critical cultural, economic and political issues in Southeast Asia. In this annual review of the region, renowned academics provide comprehensive and stimulating commentary that furthers understanding of not only the region’s dynamism but also of its tensions and conflicts. It is a must read.” –Suchit Bunbongkarn, Emeritus Professor, Chulalongkorn University “Now in its forty-fifth edition, Southeast Asian Affairs offers an indispensable guide to this fascinating region. Lively, analytical, authoritative, and accessible, there is nothing comparable in quality or range to this series. It is a must read for academics, government officials, the business community, the media, and anybody with an interest in contemporary Southeast Asia. Drawing on its unparalleled network of researchers and commentators, ISEAS is to be congratulated for producing this major contribution to our understanding of this diverse and fast-changing region, to a consistently high standard and in a timely manner.” –Hal Hill, H.W. Arndt Professor of Southeast Asian Economies, Australian National University

2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, as it was then called, was established in 1968 by then Deputy Prime Minister Dr Goh Keng Swee in order to enable the newly independent city-state better understand the region and its complexities. Since its establishment, ISEAS has dedicated itself to researching the political, economic and socio-cultural dynamics and trends in Southeast Asia for policymakers, scholars, and other relevant stakeholders. On 12 August 2015, the Institute was officially renamed ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, in honour of Singapore’s first President. This book presents three public lectures given to commemorate the Institute’s Golden Anniversary. Professor Leonard Y. Andaya delivered the first lecture entitled “Developments in the Scholarship of Southeast Asian Studies” on 21 February 2018. The second public lecture was delivered by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on 13 March 2018. Professor Wang Gungwu delivered the final public lecture entitled “Before Southeast Asia: Passages and Terrains” on 3 October 2018. Collectively, these three public lectures exhort ISEAS to continuously reflect on its research agenda, the region, as well as the contemporary landscape and challenges it has to operate in.

"This book is the result of a workshop of the ASEAN Studies Centre (ASC) held in July 2010"--P. ix.

"Southeast Asian Affairs is the only one of its kind: a comprehensive annual review devoted to the international relations, politics, and economies of the region and its nation-states. The collected volumes of Southeast Asian Affairs have become a compendium documenting the dynamic evolution of regional and national developments in Southeast Asia from the end of the ‘second’ Vietnam War to the alarms and struggles of today. Over the years, the editors have drawn on the talents and expertise not only of ISEAS’ own professional research staff and visiting fellows, but have also reached out to tap leading scholars and analysts elsewhere in Southeast and East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, North America, and Europe. A full list of contributors over forty years reads like a kind of who’s who in Southeast Asian Studies. Regardless of specific events and outcomes in political, economic, and social developments in Southeast Asia’s future, we can expect future editions of Southeast Asian Affairs to continue to provide the expert analysis that has marked the publication since its founding. It has become an important contributor to the knowledge base of contemporary Southeast Asia." -Donald E. Weatherbee, Russell Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of South Carolina

Written by the highly regarded diplomat Marty Natalegawa, former ambassador and foreign minister of Indonesia, this book offers a unique insider-perspective on the present and future relevance of ASEAN. It is about ASEAN’s quest for security and prosperity in a region marked by complex dynamics of power. Namely, the interplay of relations and interests among countries — large and small — which provide the settings within which ASEAN must deliver on its much-cited leadership and centrality in the region. The book seeks to answer the following questions: How can ASEAN build upon its past contributions to the peace, security and prosperity of Southeast Asia, to the wider East Asia, the Asia-Pacific and the Indo-Pacific regions? More fundamentally and a sine qua non, how can ASEAN continue to ensure that peace, security and prosperity prevail in Southeast Asia? And, equally central, how can ASEAN become more relevant to the peoples of ASEAN, such that its contributions can be genuinely felt in making better the lives of its citizens?

Southeast Asia’s Internet users are far more diverse than usually reported. They range from the urban youth with laptops and highspeed Wi-Fi, to the older generation semi-rural and rural users with affordable mobile phones for Facebook and WhatsApp. Southeast Asians generally trust social media platforms more than in Western societies. This trust in social media reflects a lack of trust in local mainstream media and official sources of information. What campaign information (and disinformation) is being spread and which ones are most successful are essential for understanding how voters in Southeast Asia use and trust social media. Social media platforms and Southeast Asia’s “app industry” need clearer and enforced regulation on their use of data and the extent to which they can sell data to advertisers. These advertisers include, but are not limited to, politicians and political parties. Since the future of social media usage will likely lie in closed groups, the role of big data analyses that have dominated research on social media over the past ten years, is likely to regress. Instead, ethnographic scholars who can access these groups and engage with their particular interests and identities are more likely to be useful in understanding the digital sphere in the future.

This textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the political systems of all ASEAN countries and Timor-Leste from a comparative perspective. It investigates the political institutions, actors and processes in eleven states, covering democracies as well as autocratic regimes. Each country study includes an analysis of the current system of governance, the party and electoral system, and an assessment of the state, its legal system and administrative bodies. Students of political science and regional studies will also learn about processes of democratic transition and autocratic persistence, as well as how civil society and the media influence the political culture in each country.

This volume investigates the appropriate position of Islam and opposing perceptions of Muslims in Southeast Asia. The contributors examine how Southeast Asian Muslims respond to globalization in their particular regional, national and local settings, and suggest global solutions for key local issues.

This volume will explore the role of India and China in regional geopolitics, with a focus on Southeast Asia. It highlights some of the key events and turning points in the evolving equations since the times of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indias first prime minister. In six chapters, it shows how Indias prominent position in devising the regional architecture in Asia was diluted after the Bandung era, especially after the Indo-China war in 1962. The author maintains that, relative to its earlier status as a major champion of Asian regionalism, India had become a political and diplomatic non-entity, if not a pariah, in Southeast Asia by the 1980s. While China emerged as the most important political entity in the region over the next three decades, India gradually made substantial inroads into the ASEAN scene, more so after its emergence as a 'rising' power in the post-Cold War era and economic reforms of 1991. 00This book revisits the question of contemporary Asian security from an Indian vantage point, posing critical questions about the future of regional leadership in Southeast Asia, and demonstrating how it depends as much on the India-China-Southeast Asia relationship as on China-US-Japan relations.