South China Sea (SCS) issues are complex and dynamic, ranging from historic claims to present day military occupation, from military security to regional stability, from rhetorical appeasements to national interests, from intraregional competition to extraregional involvement. The submissions made in 2009 by several Southeast Asian states to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) respecting outer limits of extended continental shelves beyond 200 nautical miles in the South China Sea resulted in renewed attention to the maritime disputes over the insular features and the waters of the South China Sea among several claimant States. Questions have resurfaced about the future of cooperation in the region. Furthermore, the improvement of cross-Strait relations between Taiwan and China after 2008 has added a new element to the evolution of South China Sea issues. This book describes these recent developments in depth and provides an examination of possible future developments in the South China Sea. The articles in this book were originally published as special sections in Ocean Development & International Law.

In this report, the author examines whether and how the United States can increase its cooperation with Indonesia in order to manage China's rise as a strategic competitor to the United States in the Indo-Pacific region.

Heightened tensions in the South China Sea have raised serious concerns about the dangers of conflict in this region as a result of unresolved, complex territorial disputes. This volume offers detailed insights into a range of country-perspectives, addressing the historical, legal, structural, regional and multilateral dimensions of these disputes

Indonesia has urbanized rapidly since its independence in 1945, profoundly changing its economic geography and giving rise to a diverse array of urban places. These places range from the bustling metropolis of Jakarta to rapidly emerging urban centers in hitherto largely rural parts of the country. Although urbanization has produced considerable benefits for many Indonesians, its potential has only been partially realized. Time to ACT: Realizing Indonesia’s Urban Potential explores the extent to which urbanization in Indonesia has delivered in terms of prosperity, inclusiveness, and livability. The report takes a broad view of urbanization’s performance in these three key areas, covering both the monetary and nonmonetary aspects of welfare. It analyzes the fundamental reforms that can help the country to more fully achieve widespread and sustainable benefits, and it introduces a new policy framework—the ACT framework—to guide policy making. This framework emphasizes the three policy principles of Augment, Connect, and Target: • Augment the provision and quality of infrastructure and basic services across urban and rural locations • Connect places and people to jobs and opportunities and services • Target lagging areas and marginalized groups through well-designed place-based policies, as well as thoughtful urban planning and design. Using this framework, the report provides policy recommendations differentiated by four types of place that differ in both their economic characteristics and the challenges that they face— multidistrict metro areas, single-district metro areas, nonmetro urban areas, and nonmetro rural areas. In addition to its eight chapters, Time to ACT: Realizing Indonesia’s Urban Potential includes four spotlights on strengthening the disaster resilience of Indonesian cities, the nexus between urbanization and human capital, the “invisible†? crisis of wastewater management, and the potential for smart cities in Indonesia. If Indonesia continues to urbanize in line with global historical standards, more than 70 percent of its population will be living in towns and cities by the time the country celebrates the centenary of its independence in 2045. Accordingly, how Indonesia manages this continued expansion of its urban population—and the mounting congestion forces that expansion brings—will do much to determine whether the country reaches the upper rungs of the global ladder of prosperity, inclusiveness, and livability.

Indonesia suffered an explosion of religious violence, ethnic violence, separatist violence, terrorism, and violence by criminal gangs, the security forces and militias in the late 1990s and early 2000s. By 2002 Indonesia had the worst terrorism problem of any nation. All these forms of violence have now fallen dramatically. How was this accomplished? What drove the rise and the fall of violence? Anomie theory is deployed to explain these developments. Sudden institutional change at the time of the Asian financial crisis and the fall of President Suharto meant the rules of the game were up for grabs. Valerie Braithwaite's motivational postures theory is used to explain the gaming of the rules and the disengagement from authority that occurred in that era. Ultimately resistance to Suharto laid a foundation for commitment to a revised, more democratic, institutional order. The peacebuilding that occurred was not based on the high-integrity truth-seeking and reconciliation that was the normative preference of these authors. Rather it was based on non-truth, sometimes lies, and yet substantial reconciliation. This poses a challenge to restorative justice theories of peacebuilding.

Measuring Vulnerability to Natural Hazards presents a broad range of current approaches to measuring vulnerability. It provides a comprehensive overview of different concepts at the global, regional, national, and local levels, and explores various schools of thought. More than 40 distinguished academics and practitioners analyse quantitative and qualitative approaches, and examine their strengths and limitations. This book contains concrete experiences and examples from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe to illustrate the theoretical analyses.The authors provide answers to some of the key questions on how to measure vulnerability and they draw attention to issues with insufficient coverage, such as the environmental and institutional dimensions of vulnerability and methods to combine different methodologies.This book is a unique compilation of state-of-the-art vulnerability assessment and is essential reading for academics, students, policy makers, practitioners, and anybody else interested in understanding the fundamentals of measuring vulnerability. It is a critical review that provides important conclusions which can serve as an orientation for future research towards more disaster resilient communities.