In The Shadow Of Giants The Major Powers And The Security Of Southeast Asia

The rise of China is changing the strategic landscape globally and regionally. How states respond to potential threats posed by this new power arrangement will be crucial to international relations for the coming decades. This book builds on existing realist and rationalist concepts of balancing, bandwagoning, commitment problems, and asymmetric information to craft explanations about how states respond when faced with potential threats. Specifically, the book explores the role different types of uncertainty play in potential balancing situations. Particular focus is given to the nature of the rising state’s actions, the balance of forces, and the value of delay. These concepts are analysed and illustrated through a series of case studies on Europe in the 1930s as well as the present-day Southeast Asia, looking at great powers such as Britain and France, but also a wide range of smaller powers including Poland, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Security and economic imperatives are increasingly intertwining the destinies of Southeast Asia and South Asia, making it necessary for scholars on both sides to deepen their understanding of each other's regions. This collection of papers, first presented at a Dialogue between the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and the Observer Research Foundation of India in March 2006, provides perspectives from India and Singapore on some of the major security and political issues facing the two regions. The subjects covered include regional integration trends as symbolized by the first East Asian Summit, the roles of the major powers, maritime security and naval deployments in the Indian Ocean region, and political and security developments within Southeast Asia.

The success of regionalism in Southeast Asia depends on the attitudes of the states within the region but also on the attitude of those outside it. This book is an erudite and stimulating study on the latter. Placing these states in a long term historical context Tarling brings out the way in which the rivalries of those powers within the region and outside it have affected the states within the region. He also shows how divisions within the region, and within states in the region, offered invitations and opportunities for intervention from outside, and so perhaps gave Southeast Asia an importance in international relations it would not otherwise have had. Regional leaders appear in recent decades to have recognised what may be construed as one of the lessons of history; if Southeast Asia can provide security for the Straits route, and stable conditions for trade and investment, it might enjoy both peace and a measure of prosperity. Southeast Asia and the Great Powers is an important read for students and scholars of the history and international relations of Southeast Asia.

"This volume presents the findings of a research project organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in 1989 to look specifically into the impact of the end of the Cold War on regional security. It is one of the few attempts that have been made to understand the complex nature of relations between the major Asian powers and Southeast Asia in the context of their historical ambitions and current strategic imperatives. The eleven contributors are a unique combination of regional and international expertise in the field of strategic analysis representing all the major interested parties in the wider Asia-Pacific environment. Their chapters deal not only with China, India, and Japan but also with the central role of ASEAN, particularly its largest member, Indonesia, and the rapidly changing profile of Vietnam."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This innovative text provides the reader with an historical analysis of Southeast Asia from the unusual perspective of regionalism.

This volume investigates the nature of threats facing, or perceived as facing, some of the key players involved in Asian maritime politics. The articles in this collection present case studies on Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Japan, China, and Southeast Asia as a whole and focus on domestic definitions of threats and conceptualisations of security. These studies map the differing understandings of danger in this region and explore how contending narratives of "threats" and "security" affect the national maritime security policy deliberations within the countries of this region. Those interested in maritime security and management in Asia will find this collection an invaluable addition to the literature on this topic.

The 21st century has been described as the "Asian Century." Home to 60 per cent of the world's population and accounting for one-fourth of its Gross Domestic Product, by 2050, Asia will also have three of the worlds largest economies-China, India, and Japan. A dynamic hub in this rising Asia is the Southeast Asian region encompassing diverse countries, peoples and cultures. The 9th Asian Security Conference, organized in February 2007, addressed a range of issues and trends affecting this crucial region and their implications for regional and Asian security. The conference, titled Changing Security Dynamics in South East Asia deliberated on Southeast Asian perspectives on security, the role of external powers both current and also those that were rising, the problems of religious fundamentalism and terrorism, the challenges of maritime cooperation among countries abutting crucial world energy transit routes, the advantages of regional, multilateral organizations in fostering cooperative behaviours, and India's growing role and stakes in this region. The contributors point out that the primary security concerns confronting the region were often internal in nature. On the external front, they note the changing geo-political situation'due to the rise of China, a revitalized Japan, a more active Indian presence, along with the continued primacy of the United States. Stressing that these changes were accompanied by their own sets of opportunities and challenges, they express confidence in the ability of regional organizations like the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to deal with the challenges. India and the countries of Southeast Asia have a rich shared history. New Delhi's policy initiatives like the 'Look East's policy have also deepened its economic and security links with the region. Contributors examine different aspects of this growing and multi-faceted relationship, including in meeting the common challenges of energy security, humanitarian and disaster relief, combating trans-national terrorism, among other issues. We hope that this book will contribute to a better understanding of the changing security dynamics in Southeast Asia.

With the United States and China competing for influence in Southeast Asia, how weaker states in the region make their foreign policy choices has come under more scrutiny in recent years. The conventional International Relations literature tends to focus on how great powers influence or even dictate weaker states' domestic politics and foreign policies, yet pays little attention to the weaker states' agency. There has not been enough study focusing on what conditions enable weaker states to maximize their own national interest. Why are some weaker states more capable of resisting demands made on them by the great powers? Why can some weaker states get more aid than others even though they are located within one geographic region? To explain how weaker states achieve their national interest, this paper offers a theoretical framework to analyze how the interplay between level of international competition and weaker states' foreign policy choices can explain weaker states' ability to realize their national interest. The paper then offers three paired comparisons of two weaker states in Southeast Asia, Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), in their relations with the U.S. and China throughout the Cold War and post-Cold War periods to illustrate the logic of the theoretical framework.

This book introduces the ten nation region of Southeast Asia: The main themes of the book are diversity, differential development and changing socio-economic and political setting affecting these characteristics in the 1990s. The nations of Southeast Asia have different languages, three dominant religions - Buddhism, Islam and Christianity, varied levels of economic development that range from bare agricultural subsistence to highly urbanized and highly developed. The historically based core areas of these countries have evolved on their own. Moreover, the effects of Indian, Chinese, Islamic, and Western cultures have been experienced differently in different nations at different times in their histories. This book is intended to be understood by all those who want an initial introduction to Southeast Asia. As many aspects of the book are the result of an in-depth research, carried out by the contributing authors, it is also a valuable reference. The contributing authors have portrayed the basic spatial aspects of the region as well as their relevance in the 1990s based in novel ways and through original interpretations. All fIrst and some second authors of chapters are professors. All but one have Ph. Os. Most contributing authors are geographers but with different sub-specialties: P. P.