Current unrest in the Malay-Muslim provinces of southern Thailand has captured growing national, regional, and international attention due to the heightened tempo and scale of rebel attacks, the increasingly jihadist undertone that has come to characterize insurgent actions, and the central government's often brutal handling of the situation on the ground. This paper assesses the current situation and its probable direction.

Current unrest in the Malay-Muslim provinces of southern Thailand has captured growing national, regional, and international attention due to the heightened tempo and scale of rebel attacks, the increasingly jihadist undertone that has come to characterize insurgent actions, and the central government's often brutal handling of the situation on the ground. This paper assesses the current situation and its probable direction.

In this Lowy Institute Paper, Joseph Chinyong Liow and Don Pathan examine the ongoing violence in the majority Muslim Malay provinces of Thailand's south. Through unprecedented fieldwork, the authors provide the deepest and most up-to-date analysis of the insurgency and problems the Thai Government faces in dealing with it.

Democratizing educational access and building capacity in developing countries and amongst indigenous peoples in developed countries may be elusive but are hopeful goals. Many developing countries are striving to reengineer their incoherent education systems at a time when they are most vulnerable, particularly with susceptibility to natural disasters, political unrests, and economic instabilities (UNESCO, 2007). Similarly, indigenous peoples in developed countries are seeking more control over education as they consider the long?term effects of educational policies that have been forced on them. Research on education and social change in developing countries has a long history (Glewwe, 2002; Hanushek, 1995; Sider, 2011). However, there is limited research on educational capacity?building in developing countries such as Kenya, Honduras, Haiti, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Peru, China, and Thailand. Further, the educational frameworks by which Indigenous peoples (M?ori, Canada’s First Nations, and American Indian/Alaska Natives) have been educated have some significant similarities to those encountered in developing countries. The compilation of chapters illuminates research and collaborative initiatives between the authors and local leaders in developing countries’ and Indigenous peoples in developed countries’ efforts to solve the complexity of social inequities through educational access and quality learning. The authors draw on theoretical lens, knowledge bases, and strategies, and identify trends and developments to provide the scope of educational improvement in a globalization context (Brooks & Normore, 2010; Jean?Marie, Normore & Brooks, 2009).

This edited volume examines how the transition and diffusion of power in global politics is impacting on stability and order in Asia. Both in the academic field of International Relations (IR) and among policymakers, the big question today concerns the rise of China, the relative decline of the United States, and the increasing importance of Asia in global politics. The level of impact the international power transition will have in the region remains unclear, but observers agree that Asia is a potential tinderbox for crises and conflict. This volume brings together leading scholars from around the world to assess current thinking in IR on these issues. The authors apply appropriate theories and methods of analysis in their specific area of expertise to examine the likely effects of the changing global power distribution on Asia. There is also said to be an ongoing diffusion of power away from states to non-state actors in the region; hence, in addition to examining changing relations between the Great Powers, the book will also assess the implications that other actors, from terrorist groups, insurgents and organised crime syndicates, could have on stability and order. This book will be of much interest to students of Asian politics, security studies, diplomacy and international relations.

A valuable, up-to-date reference tool for understanding the latest developments in national and international terrorism—one of the most pressing security challenges facing the world today. Terrorism has emerged as one of the main foreign and national policy challenges of the 21st century. Encyclopedia of Terrorism provides comprehensive coverage of the events, individuals, groups, incidents, and trends in terrorism in the modern era. This essential work presents accurate, concise, and crucial information on developments since the watershed events of September 11, 2001, providing readers with an invaluable reference tool for understanding major developments that have occurred in domestic and international terrorism. The work is fully cross-referenced to provide a comprehensive research tool for high school students, academics, security analysts, and other readers interested in the study of terrorism.

Mainland Southeast Asia is one of the world's key regions for trafficking of illegal goods. It is home to an international trade in small arms, nuclear smuggling rings, human trafficking, contraband and counterfeit goods, illicit currency and smuggled medicinal drugs. The scope and mechanisms of such trafficking, however, are far from understood. "An Atlas of Trafficking in Southeast Asia" brings together key researchers and cartographic specialists to provide a unique overview of the major forms of illegal trafficking in the region. Featuring 32 specially drawn full-colour maps detailing the trafficking hubs, counter-trafficking facilities and border status for each of the trafficking activities, together with political, historical, topographic, ecological and linguistic regional maps, the atlas provides an unparalleled reference resource that will be welcomed by professionals and academics across a wide range of disciplines.

Preventive Diplomacy (PD) has been recognized as a useful tool to address security issues in the Asia-Pacific region. To explore a PD mode compatible with the regional situation step by step on the basis of consensus has become the common will of the regional countries. Since the region is facing various new challenges, this requires innovation in theories and practices of PD. Focusing on the practice of preventive diplomacy, this book conducts empirical and comparative studies on the application of preventive diplomacy in various issue areas and by different countries.

This study analyzes the ongoing conflicts in southern Thailand and southern Philippines between indigenous Muslim minorities and their respective central governments. In particular, it investigates and interrogates the ideological context and content of conflicts in southern Thailand and southern Philippines insofar as they pertain to Islam and radicalism in order to assess the extent to which these conflicts have taken on a greater religious character and the implications this might have on our understanding of them. In the main, the monograph argues that while conflicts in southern Thailand and southern Philippines have taken on religious hues as a consequence of both local and external factors, on present evidence they share little with broader radical global Islamist and Jihadist ideologies and movements, and their contents and contexts remain primarily political, reflected in the key objective of some measure of self-determination, and local, in terms of the territorial and ideational boundaries of activism and agitation. Furthermore, though both conflicts appear on the surface to be driven by similar dynamics and mirror each other, they are different in several fundamental ways.

Insurgencies have dominated the focus of the U.S. military for the past seven years, but they have a much longer history than that and are likely to figure prominently in future U.S. military operations. Thus, the general characteristics of insurgencies and, more important, how they end are of great interest to U.S. policymakers. This study constitutes the unclassified portion of a two-part study that examines insurgencies in great detail. The research documented in this monograph focuses on insurgency endings generally. Its findings are based on a quantitative examination of 89 cases.