What have been the fundamental shifts in Japanese society over the past decade? And what has remained the same? What will the country look like in five years from now?Introducing you to all aspects of Japanese society, culture, politics, economy, geography and history, this book guides you through the country's enduring features, recent trends and the most interesting areas of analysis:- Gender roles, gender fluidity and LBGTQ identities: i...

Fighting for Virtue investigates how Thailand's judges were tasked by the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) in 2006 with helping to solve the country's intractable political problems—and what happened next. Across the last decade of Rama IX's rule, Duncan McCargo examines the world of Thai judges: how they were recruited, trained, and promoted, and how they were socialized into a conservative world view that emphasized the proximity between t...

Since January 2004, a violent separatist insurgency has raged in southern Thailand, resulting in more than three thousand deaths. Though largely unnoticed outside Southeast Asia, the rebellion in Pattani and neighboring provinces and the Thai government's harsh crackdown have resulted in a full-scale crisis. Tearing Apart the Land by Duncan McCargo, one of the world's leading scholars of contemporary Thai politics, is the first fieldwork-based book about this conflict. Drawing on his exten...

A uniquely comprehensive overview of a fascinating and rapidly changing country, dealing with the politics, economics, society and foreign policy of Vietnam from the Doi Moi reforms of market socialism in 1986 to the present day. Drawing on fieldwork and analysis by an international team of specialists this book covers all aspects of contemporary Vietnam including recent history, the political economy, the reform process, education, health, labour market, foreign direct investment and fore...

Media and Politics in Pacific Asia is the first book to provide a detailed account of the political influences exerted by both domestic and international media in Pacific Asia. Duncan McCargo argues that the media are political actors and institutions in their own right, and that as such they can play a variety of political roles, some of which support processes of demographic transition and consolidation, and some which do just the opposite.Drawing on first-hand research ...

This is the first book in the English language to examine the tangled web of relationships linking newspaper owners, editors and reporters, with leading politicians and power-holders. Duncan McCargo has been granted unique access to the editorial meetings of Thailand's leading newspapers, and drawing on this, the book uncovers the contradictions and dichotomies which underlie political coverage in the Thai press.

With Malaysia in the throes of sweeping political change, academic turned political activist and presently, Senator from Selangor state to the Parliament, Dr Syed Husin Ali traces how ethnicity has been manipulated, since Independence, by Malaysian politicians for their own gain to the detriment of the masses. In articles spanning more than three decades, collected for the first time here, he dissects the origins, fallacies and destructive nature of communal politics in Malaysia and examin...

Professor Tommy Koh is Singapore's Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rector of Tembusu College, Special Adviser of the Institute of Policy Studies, and Chairman of the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore.In his distinguished career, Prof Koh has served as Singapore's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, as Ambassador to the United States of America, as President of the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea and Chairman of the ...

Why are Southeast Asia's richest countries such as Malaysia riddled with corruption? Why do Myanmar, Thailand and the Philippines harbour unresolved violent insurgencies? How do deepening religious divisions in Indonesia and Malaysia, and China's growing influence, affect the region and the rest of the world?Thought-provoking and eye-opening, Blood and Silk is an accessible, personal look at modern Southeast Asia, written by one of the region's most experienced outside obs...

Reflections: The Legacy of Lee Kuan Yew is a collection of essays reflecting on Singapore's first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew's immense contribution to nation-building and the idea of development. This includes its various models — from government and statecraft as well as leadership and governance, to economic development and the management of plural societies. The papers are written by a range of authors who had worked closely with, or for, or grew up, under Lee Kuan Yew.

Since the early 1990s and the end of the Cold War, the implications of China's rising power have come to dominate the security agenda of the Asia-Pacific region. This book is the first to comprehensively chart the development of Southeast Asia’s relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from 1949 to 2010, detailing each of the eleven countries’ ties to the PRC and showing how strategic concerns associated with China's regional posture have been a significant factor in shaping the...

(This edition contains a limited number of illustrations.)The most frank, readable and detailed account available in the English language of the political, economic, environmental and cultural changes sweeping through south-east Asia.By the mid-1990s, south-east Asia and its fast-growing economies were the envy of the world. The region’s leaders boasted that their societies, based on hard work and family values, were superior to those of the decadent West. Then came the fin...