This study looks at factors affecting perceptions of external threats held by the leadership of each of the five ASEAN member-states. Five relevant 'dimensions' are identified (structural, geopolitical, historical, sociocultural, and economic), and the perceptions of the five states' leaders of the major external threats facing their nations are examined on these dimensions.

This book explores elite perceptions of the external threats facing the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), drawing on Dr. Tilman's interviews with senior political, military, and intellectual leaders in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. He supplements his interviews with an examination of their writings, speeches, and other public statements, which he examines in the context of the history, geography, culture, and governmental structures of each country. He addresses the fundamental questions of the extent to which these perceptions differ and why. His focus throughout is on subjective reality--the world as it is perceived by the leadership of the ASEAN nations.

This ground-breaking volume considers the ethical aspects of foreign policy change through five interrelated dimensions: conceptual, security, economic, normative and diplomatic. Defining ethics and what an ethical foreign policy should be is highly contested. The book includes many very different viewpoints to reflect the strong divergence of opinion on such issues as humanitarian intervention, free trade, the doctrine of preemption, political corruption and human rights. The thematic approach provides this volume with a clear organizational structure, giving readers a balanced overview of a number of important conceptual and practical issues central to the ethical analysis of states' conduct and foreign policy making. An impressive group of international scholars and practitioners, including a New Zealand Foreign Minister, a US National Security Advisor, and an ICJ Justice, makes this volume ideally suited to courses on international relations, security studies, ethics and human rights, philosophy, media studies and international law.

How can a developing, democratic and predominantly Muslim country like Indonesia manage its foreign relations, while facing a myriad of security concerns and dilemmas in the increasingly complex post-Cold War international politics, without compromising its national interests and sacrificing its independence? Approaching this problem from the vantage point of the Indonesian foreign policy elite, this book explores the elite's perceptions about other states and the manner in which these shape the decision-making process and determine policy outcomes. The combined qualitative and quantitative research strategy draws on a unique series of in-depth interviews with 45 members of the Indonesian foreign policy elite that included the country's (present and/or former) presidents, cabinet ministers, high-ranking military officers, and senior diplomats. Among all state actors, Indonesian relations with the United States and China are the highest concern of the elite. The leaders believe that, in the future, Indonesia will increasingly have to manoeuvre between the two rival powers. While the United States during George W. Bush's presidency was seen as the main security threat to Indonesia, China is considered the main malign factor in the long run with power capabilities that need to be constrained and counter-balanced.