Providing context-specific regional and national perspectives, this novel Handbook sets out to disentangle the considerable intellectual ambiguities that surround Asian public administration and Asia's diverse applications of Western administrative models. Building a holistic understanding of public administration systems across East, Southeast and South Asia, chapters explore the various historical formations, contemporary changes, and impacts of local contexts. It also covers social accountability, performance and human resource management, and the role of local governments. An international range of leading scholars track the gradual embrace of market-driven reforms in Asian public policy and administration, including privatisation, agencification, outcome-based performance, and customer choice. With its cross-regional and cross-national comparisons finding divergences in these reforms, the Handbook's most significant revelation highlights the impacts of national political contexts and actors on bureaucracy. Illustrating a clear overarching picture of the divergences in Asian public administration, the comparative focus of this Handbook will prove invaluable to students and scholars of Asian politics, public policy and administration. It will also be a useful point of reference to Asian policy makers and bureaucrats dealing with national administrative reforms who are looking to innovate the public sector.

Peace is an elusive concept, especially within the field of international law, varying according to historical era and between Research Handbook responds to the gap created by the neglect of peace in international law scholarship. Explaining the normative evolution of peace from the principles of peaceful co-existence to the UN declaration on the right to peace, this Research Handbook calls for the fortification of international institutions to facilitate the pursuit of sustainable peace as a public good. It sets forth a new agenda for research that invites scholars from a broad array of disciplines and fields of law to analyse the contribution of international institutions to the construction and implementation of sustainable peace. With its critical examination of courts, transitional justice institutions, dispute resolution and fact-finding mechanisms, this Research Handbook goes beyond the traditional focus on post-conflict resolution, and includes areas not usually found in analyses of peace such as investment and trade law. Bringing together contributions from leading researchers in the field of international law and peace, this Research Handbook analyses peace in the context of law applicable to women, refugees, environmentalism, sustainable development, disarmament, and other key contemporary issues. This thoughtful Research Handbook will be a crucial tool for policymakers, practitioners, and academics in the fields of international law, human rights, jus post bellum, and development. Its comprehensive insights to the field will also be of benefit for students of political science, law, and peace studies. Contributors: B.A. Andreassen, C.M. Bailliet, D. Behn, K. Egeland, O. Engdahl, O.K. Fauchald, J. Garcia-Godos, C. Hellestveit, M. Janmyr, S. Kanuck, K.M. Larsen, K. Liden, G. Nystuen, S. O'Connor, J.C. Sainz-Borgo, K. Skarstad, V.B. Strand, H. Syse, A Tadjdini, C. Voigt, C. Weiss, P. Wrange, G. Zyberi