You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, as it was then called, was established in 1968 by then Deputy Prime Minister Dr Goh Keng Swee in order to enable the newly independent city-state better understand the region and its complexities. Since its establishment, ISEAS has dedicated itself to researching the political, economic and socio-cultural dynamics and trends in Southeast Asia for policymakers, scholars, and other relevant stakeholders. On 12 August 2015, the Institute was officially renamed ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, in honour of Singapore’s first President. This book presents three public lectures given ...
“As the euphoria fades from the Jokowi presidency, this timely book reviews the processes that brought him to the top, and the processes that have undermined his initial standing. The nineteen articles by ten writers provide views from along the way, starting with a chapter on the Jakarta governor elections from November 2012 and preceding through the key events up to a contemporary assessment in February 2015. Several major clues to the current disillusion are provided in accounts of the legislative elections and the presidential campaigns. Key topics are vote buying, the Islamic factor, economic platforms, pluralism, economic challenges. Max Lane points to deep alienation from politics a...
Written by the highly regarded diplomat Marty Natalegawa, former ambassador and foreign minister of Indonesia, this book offers a unique insider-perspective on the present and future relevance of ASEAN. It is about ASEAN’s quest for security and prosperity in a region marked by complex dynamics of power. Namely, the interplay of relations and interests among countries — large and small — which provide the settings within which ASEAN must deliver on its much-cited leadership and centrality in the region. The book seeks to answer the following questions: How can ASEAN build upon its past contributions to the peace, security and prosperity of Southeast Asia, to the wider East Asia, the Asia-Pacific and the Indo-Pacific regions? More fundamentally and a sine qua non, how can ASEAN continue to ensure that peace, security and prosperity prevail in Southeast Asia? And, equally central, how can ASEAN become more relevant to the peoples of ASEAN, such that its contributions can be genuinely felt in making better the lives of its citizens?
The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) launched its electronic publication ISEAS Perspective in mid-2012. During its first year in existence, 58 internally reviewed issues were produced. These were distributed in steady fashion by email to addresses registered with the Institute. However, ISEAS has deemed it a worthy public service to have selected articles from that first year published in a single printed volume at cost price. Articles herein were chosen according to strict criteria such as analytical strength; continued salience of the subject discussed; referential potential; literary quality in general; et cetera. ISEAS intends to print such annual selections in the coming years. We are certain that you, the reader, will find them informative and stimulating. —Tan Chin Tiong, ISEAS Director
Inequality is a defining global issue of our times. Southeast Asia stands out in some ways; the 2010s have seen most countries in the region reduce income gaps. Nonetheless, inequality levels remain high, especially in the middle-income to high-income countries, and popular disaffection and economic anxiety prevail, even while official statistics may paint more buoyant scenarios. The age-old problem of group-based exclusion in the development process manifests in new ways. This book provides up-to-date overviews of inequality levels and trends, primarily related to income, but also wealth and other socio-economic variables pertaining to education and health. The country chapters also examine...
Troubled Transit considers the situation of asylum seekers stuck in limbo in Indonesia from a number of perspectives. It presents not only the narratives of many transit migrants but also the perceptions of Indonesian authorities and of representatives of international and non-government organizations responsible for the care of transiting asylum seekers. Fascinated by the extraordinary and seemingly limitless resilience shown by asylum seekers during their often lengthy and dangerous journeys, the author highlights one particular fragment of their journeys — their time in Indonesia, which many expect to be the last stepping stone to a new life. While they long for their new life to unfold...
"Islam in the Malay world of Southeast Asia or Islam Nusantara, as it has come to be known, had for a long time been seen as representing the more spiritual and Sufi dimension of Islam, thereby striking a balance between the exoteric and the esoteric. This image of 'the smiling face of Islam' has been disturbed during the last decades with increasing calls for the implementation of Shari’ah, conceived of in a narrow manner, intolerant discourse against non-Muslim communities, and hate speech against minority Muslims such as the Shi’ites. There has also been what some have referred to as the Salafization of Sunni Muslims in the region. The chapters of this volume are written by scholars and activists from the region who are very perceptive of such trends in Malay world Islam and promise to improve our understanding of developments that are sometimes difficult to grapple with." — Professor Syed Farid Alatas, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore
By studying intersections among new cults of wealth, ritually empowered amulets and professional spirit mediumship—which have emerged together in Thailand’s dynamic religious field in recent decades—Capitalism Magic Thailand explores the conditions under which global modernity produces new varieties of enchantment. Bruno Latour’s account of modernity as a condition fractured between rationalizing ideology and hybridizing practice is expanded to explain the apparent paradox of new forms of magical ritual emerging alongside religious fundamentalism across a wide range of Asian societies. In Thailand, novel and increasingly popular varieties of ritual now form a symbolic complex in whic...
"This book is a compilation of papers first presented at the workshop "The palm oil controversy in transnational perspective" that took place in Singapore, 2-4 March 2009. The workshop was jointly organized by the Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universit'at, Bonn and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore. It was funded by Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)"--Preface.
Developing a framework to study "what makes a region," Amitav Acharya investigates the origins and evolution of Southeast Asian regionalism and international relations. He views the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) "from the bottom up" as not only a U.S.-inspired ally in the Cold War struggle against communism but also an organization that reflects indigenous traditions. Although Acharya deploys the notion of "imagined community" to examine the changes, especially since the Cold War, in the significance of ASEAN dealings for a regional identity, he insists that "imagination" is itself not a neutral but rather a culturally variable concept. The regional imagination in Southeast ...