Biography of Sutan Sjahrir, first Indonesian prime minister.

Truth and nationalism the sarekat Islam organization was the launching pad for Agus Salim’s political activities. He mobilized thousands of its members in the struggle against the dutch colonial government, while keeping a wary eye on another political for the rising communists.

When a reluctant President Sukarno gave Lt Gen Soeharto full executive authority in March 1966, Indonesia was a deeply divided nation, fractured along ideological, class, religious and ethnic lines. Soeharto took a country in chaos, the largest in Southeast Asia, and transformed it into one of the “Asian miracle” economies—only to leave it back on the brink of ruin when he was forced from office thirty-two years later. Drawing on his astonishing range of interviews with leading Indonesian generals, former Imperial Japanese Army officers and men who served in the Dutch colonial army, as well as years of patient research in Dutch, Japanese, British, Indonesian and US archives, David Jenkins brings vividly to life the story of how a socially reticent but exceptionally determined young man from rural Java began his rise to power—an ascent which would be capped by thirty years (1968–98) as President of Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation on earth. Soeharto was one of Asia’s most brutal, most durable, most avaricious and most successful dictators. In the course of examining those aspects of his character, this book provides an accessible, highly readable introduction to the complex, but dramatic and utterly absorbing, social, political, religious, economic and military factors that have shaped, and which continue to shape, Indonesia.

A study of Rizal, his works, and his influence in Southeast Asia; how his contemporaries saw him; the role Rizal played in inspiring Indonesian nationalists; how the Indonesians and Malaysians appropriated him in the movement for independence, and how he figures in the region's intellectual, political and literary discourse.

Asian regional integration, which has shown remarkable progress since the end of the 1990s, is at a major crossroads. It faces confusion of and debate over the direction and effectiveness of integration as well as friction brought about by the rise of China. Meanwhile, the changing balance of power among nations, the rise of nonstate actors, the internationalization of internal problems, and the internalization of international problems are rendering the cross-national structure of Asia increasingly complex and multilayered. Signs of instability of the global economy are growing, and environmental and resource challenges are deepening. East Asia needs new approaches to understanding the state of regional integration and mechanisms to address the challenges. Regional Integration in East Asia is the culmination of five years of intensive research on Asian regional integration by Waseda University. It reexamines theoretical approaches to comprehending the actual state of integration in the region and presents the most compelling ones. It also examines the state of cooperation in Asia in areas ranging from the economy to energy and the environment, security, and education. In addition, the book offers long-term historical perspectives, including those of Japan, ASEAN, and China on Asian regional integration. Thus, it sheds light on diverse aspects, levels of analysis, and time spans and offers a comprehensive portrayal of the actual condition of Asia and the state of attempts to build regional cooperation and institutions. This volume will open a new research frontier in Asian regional integration research.

A comprehensive biography of the Indonesian nationalist leader and Prime Minister of the Indonesian Republic, Sutan Sjahrir. This work is both a study of an individual and the social conditions that shaped him. The author has conducted extensive research and interviews with those who knew Sjahrir personally, politically, and by reputation.

No Other Way Out provides a powerful explanation for the emergence of popular revolutionary movements, and the occurrence of actual revolutions, during the Cold War era. This sweeping study ranges from Southeast Asia in the 1940s and 1950s to Central America in the 1970s and 1980s and Eastern Europe in 1989. Following in the 'state-centered' tradition of Theda Skocpol's States and Social Revolutions and Jack Goldstone's Revolutions and Rebellion in the Early Modern World, Goodwin demonstrates how the actions of specific types of authoritarian regimes unwittingly channeled popular resistance into radical and often violent directions. Revolution became the 'only way out', to use Trotsky's formulation, for the opponents of these intransigent regimes. By comparing the historical trajectories of more than a dozen countries, Goodwin also shows how revolutionaries were sometimes able to create, and not simply exploit, opportunities for seizing state power.