Neutralization is a technique for the management of power in international relations: for the restraint and, to a degree, regulation of the exercise of power in areas that become focal points of competitive struggle. In this volume four leading scholars assess the potential uses of neutralization in the contemporary world. In interlocking essays the authors discuss the functions of neutralization, relevant historical precedents, preconditions for its establishment, methods of negotiating neutralization, maintenance of neutralization, and the prospects for neutralization in Southeast Asia today. Originally published in 1968. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Until recently, Southeast Asia was plagued by separatist insurgencies that had simmered, seemingly intractable, for several decades. But peace processes in Indonesia and the Philippines have been some of the most innovative and successful in the world—a model and counterpoint for Thailand and other protracted conflicts. Since the 1970s, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand have wrestled with secessionist groups. Each government entered into peace talks then, though without any sincerity or willingness to make significant concessions. By the turn of the millennium, the governments of Indonesia and the Philippines began to reevaluate their strategies while insurgents came to the conclusion that the changed global environment and waning capabilities made victory unlikely. Further, the impact of the 2004 tsunami brought not only another impetus, but also the involvement of the international donor community and peace processes began in both countries where they were successfully implemented. Successful devolution of political and economic powers that protected the cultural rights of the minority population, as well as substantial wealth sharing brought an end to these conflicts. Such successful peace building efforts serve as both a model and counterpoint for Thailand. Each of the case studies begins with a history of the insurgency, an analysis of the insurgent group’s organization, operations, tactics, and capabilities before delving into the history of the peace processes and analyzing the factors that made them successful. Nothing is harder than a peace process, but the lessons of Southeast Asia show that it is made possible through such factors as a national devaluation of power, bold and creative statesmanship, the successful neutralization of spoilers, and the role of neutral third party facilitators. These cases provide important lessons for the fields of counterinsurgency and peace making.

For two decades, ASEAN has officially been striving for the establishment of a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOPFAN) in Southeast Asia. The concept is an original indigenous prescription for an ideal regional order managed by the Southeast Asian states themselves without external interference. However, the realization of this project is proving to be a rather difficult task that is still far from being completed. This paper examines the ZOPFAN proposal in terms of its origins and genesis, its conceptualization, and its prospects of being put into operation. Special consideration is given to the way the concept deals with the problems of zonal neutrality. The paper concludes that, against the background of recent developments in international and regional affairs, the gap between ZOPFAN in theory and ZOPFAN in reality is bound to remain for quite some time. Whether the gap between theory and reality will be narrowed increasingly depends on the Southeast Asian states.

Arc of Containment recasts the history of American empire in Southeast and East Asia from World War II through the end of American intervention in Vietnam. Setting aside the classic story of anxiety about falling dominoes, Wen-Qing Ngoei articulates a new regional history premised on strong security and sure containment guaranteed by Anglo-American cooperation. Ngoei argues that anticommunist nationalism in Southeast Asia intersected with preexisting local antipathy toward China and the Chinese diaspora to usher the region from European-dominated colonialism to US hegemony. Central to this revisionary strategic assessment is the place of British power and the effects of direct neocolonial military might and less overt cultural influences based on decades of colonial rule, as well as the considerable influence of Southeast Asian actors upon Anglo-American imperial strategy throughout the post-war period. Arc of Containment demonstrates that American failure in Vietnam had less long-term consequences than widely believed because British pro-West nationalism had been firmly entrenched twenty-plus years earlier. In effect, Ngoei argues, the Cold War in Southeast Asia was but one violent chapter in the continuous history of western imperialism in the region in the twentieth century.