This book analyses how authoritarian rulers of Southeast Asian countries maintain their durability in office, and, in this context, explains why some movements of civil society organizations succeed while others fail to achieve their demands. It discusses the relationship between the state-society-business in the political survival context. As the first comparative analysis of strategies of regime survival across Southeast Asia, this book also provides an in-depth insight into the various opposition movements, and the behaviour of antagonistic civic and political actors in the region.

This book presents studies on Chinese intellectuals in Southeast Asia and how they understand China and Chineseness in the 21st century. It posits, through analyses of works and oral histories of a number of Chinese scholars in the region, that the dominant but distinctive approaches adopted by them are those that are rooted in humanism and pragmatism. In doing so, the book explores the significant population, local conditions and strategy of survival among the Southeast Asian Chinese as factors that influence their views and perspectives. Studies presented in the book simultaneously implicate subjectivity, where authors and their readers position themselves among ethnic, national, and civilizational identities. It highlights that while national-level identity necessarily involves dangerous self-interrogation and, at times, politics that is often suppressive and confrontational, intellectual writings on China that stick to the ethnic and civilizational levels provide more sensible exits. With that, the book then goes on to make the argument that in Southeast Asian Chinese studies, the humanities usually prevail over the social sciences at these two alternative levels. Lastly, the book also shows how the humanities can be instrumental to Southeast Asian Chinese scholars’ choice of identity strategy which makes pragmatism an important theme. The book will be of interest to students and researchers involved in Southeast Asian and Chinese studies.

Master's Thesis from the year 2016 in the subject Politics - Basics and General, grade: 71, , course: International Relations, language: English, abstract: The study aims at uncovering the immediate and remote causes of china’s land reclamations and assertiveness in the South China Sea. It uncovers that it is not unconnected with the strategic importance of South China Sea, a sea that connects the Western-Pacific and Indian Ocean, routes that account for more than half of the world trade and containing large deposits of marine lives and hydrocarbons. Privatizing all these resources and the routes will lift China to the height of global power status, a position that will enable it to challenge the supremacy of U.S. hence, its sand filling and structures building agenda in South China Sea. Within the lenses of structural and offensive realism, the study captures the reasons for China’s actions, modernization agenda and even U.S "pivot" to Asia-Pacific as the quest for survival in a world without a government to restrain the actions of the states. The international system becomes a zero-sum game where the winner takes it all. Also, using the qualitative method of analysis to validate the research questions raised, the study finds out that the historic claims raised by China in its nine-dashed line is not founded in the UNCLOS. With the global security dilemma which continues to play out in the South China Sea, the study predicts that the dispute will not end anytime soon. Therefore, as part of efforts to reduce tension in the region, there is need for Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has seemed impotent to tackle the dispute to forge one voice against China. With the idea of joint development of resources still the best option for the claimants, United States should show more commitment in the region in other to deter an assertive and aggressive China, which has recently shown greater international activism especially since the enthronement of Xi Jiping, the President of Peoples Republic of China.

After the end of the Cold War, it seemed as if Southeast Asia would remain a geopolitically stable region within the American-led order for the foreseeable future. In the last two decades, however, the re-emergence of China as a major great power has called into question the geopolitical future of the region and raised the specter of renewed great power competition. As the eminent China scholar David Shambaugh explains in Where Great Powers Meet, the United States and China are engaged in a broad-gauged and global competition for power. While this competition ranges across the entire world, it is centered in Asia. In this book, Shambaugh focuses on the critical sub-region of Southeast Asia. The United States and China constantly vie for position and influence across this enormously significant area--and the outcome of this contest will do much to determine whether Asia leaves the American orbit after seven decades and falls into a new Chinese sphere of influence. Just as importantly, to the extent that there is a global "power transition" occurring from the US to China, the fate of Southeast Asia will be a good indicator. Presently, both powers bring important assets to bear in their competition. The United States continues to possess a depth and breadth of security ties, soft power, and direct investment across the region that empirically outweigh China's. For its part, China has more diplomatic influence, much greater trade, and geographic proximity. In assessing the likelihood of a regional power transition, Shambaugh examines how ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and its member states maneuver and the degree to which they align with one or the other power.