Assessing trends toward creating innovative forms of political, economic and security co-operation in Southeast Asia, this text discusses the international dynamics of Southeast Asian security, and its impact on such external factors as the US, China and Japan.

"Grew out of a one-day conference ... organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in August 1999. Eight papers were presented at that conference, of which seven were selected, revised in 2001 and now appear as chapters in this book [together with] three more ... and also reflecting on the significance of the 2001 general election."--Pref.

"This book is about Southeast Asia in a new era. This new era began with a new century and a new millennium posing great challenges to the region and to each country in it. It has a chapter on each of the ten countries in the region, covering both the politics and the economic aspects. It has one on the region as a whole, and one on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It has a thoughtful afterword that is a summary of its contents but is more than the sum of the individual chapters. Many books and chapters of books have been written on Southeast Asia, usually by external observers. Aside from being up-to-date, this book is different from most of them in several ways. Most of the chapters are written by Southeast Asians; indeed, most of the country-chapters are written by natives of those countries. This means that the perspectives are based on local insights, which provide nuance and sensitivity. The book is addressed primarily to the young people of Southeast Asia, so that they can get to know their neighbours better. Each chapter has a guide to further reading and a series of questions to provoke further research and deeper inquiry."--publisher.

The world was watching when footage of the "tank man" -- the lone Chinese citizen blocking the passage of a column of tanks during the brutal 1989 crackdown on protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square -- first appeared in the media. The furtive video is now regarded as an iconic depiction of a government's violence against its own people. Throughout the twentieth century, states across East Asia committed many relatively undocumented atrocities, with victims numbering in the millions. The contributors to this insightful volume analyze many of the most notorious cases, including the Japanese army's Okinawan killings in 1945, Indonesia's anticommunist purge in 1965--1968, Thailand's Red Drum incinerations in 1972--1975, Cambodia's Khmer Rouge massacre in 1975--1978, Korea's Kwangju crackdown in 1980, the Philippines' Mendiola incident in 1987, Myanmar's suppression of the democratic movement in 1988, and China's Tiananmen incident. With in-depth investigation of events that have long been misunderstood or kept hidden from public scrutiny, State Violence in East Asia provides critical insights into the political and cultural dynamics of state-sanctioned violence and discusses ways to prevent it in the future.

Southeast Asia, with a total population of 520 million, remains a region characterized by fragmentation, diversity, and considerable internal conflict despite the unifying influence of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), formed some thirty-five years ago. In the new millennium, it has lost the distinction of being one of the worlds faster growing group of economies since the 1997 financial crisis. While it has benefited from the winds of globalization, it has now to cope with the painful adjustments to problems that stem from the inadequacies of good governance and structural changes.

Eero Palmujoki examines the regionalist debate in Southeast Asia from the end of the Cold War up to the beginning of the new millennium. He focuses on the organization of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and covers the political, economic and security issues characterizing its development. The book compares the theoretical debate with political developments in the region, from the beginning of the post-Cold War period with its rapid economic growth through the Asian economic crisis of 1997 and the resulting restructuring of Southeast-Asian regional systems.