This article reviews Chinese assertive behaviour towards the Philippines and Vietnam over South China Sea issues in 2011. The article compares and contrasts Chinese diplomatic behaviour in the period before and after the adoption by ASEAN member states and China of Guidelines for the...

Has the growing pro-environment rhetoric in ASEAN-China relations resulted in the effective mainstreaming of environmental issue into trade agreements and multilateral cooperation frameworks? The article discusses the cases of the ASEAN China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) and the Greater Mekong...

In May 2010, national elections in the Philippines saw front-runner presidential candidate Benigno “Noynoy†Aquino III win a landslide victory which set the stage for an orderly transition of power from the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. This article argues that...

Southeast Asia in the twenty-first century is no longer what it used to be, at least not at its ASEAN core. By the 1990s, competitive elections had (re)emerged as the primary mechanism for the assumption of state office in the Philippines and Thailand. By the turn of the century, Indonesia had...

According to “Western†models, there are three different stages of electioneering. In Indonesia, elements of these different stages are now combined. The result is not a comprehensive “Americanizationâ€, but a professionalization, along with a hybridization of indigenous and...

Book Review of the edited issue: Clarke, Matthew, Ismet Fanany, and Sue Kenny (eds.) (2010), Post-Disaster Reconstruction: Lessons from Aceh, London/ Washington DC: Earthscan ISBN 978-1-84407-879-0, 266 pages

The results of Malaysia’s general election held on 8 March 2008 was nothing short of monumental. By winning five state legislatures and denying the incumbent governing coalition its hitherto routine two-thirds parliamentary majority, the performance of the opposition, swayed by the...

Book Review of the Monograph: McCoy, Alfred (2009), Policing America’s Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State, Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press ISBN 978-0-299-23414-0, 659 pages

Based on evidence gathered through participant observation, this article illuminates the nature of vote-canvassing, previously a black box in Thai electoral studies. Offering a close-up study of the internal mechanisms of an individual Thai election campaign, this article reveals that...

In this article, findings from 300 standardized interviews with representatives of Civic Organizations in Ho Chi Minh-City and Ha Noi are presented. Following a view of civil society as a specific mode of social action and interaction, data analysis unveils the existence of core dimensions of...