Straddling the equator, Southeast Asia comprises Myanmar, Thailand,
Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, and the Philippines, as
well as Laos, Cambodia, Brunei, and East Timor. Despite its
extraordinary diversity of ethnicities, religions, and political
systems, Southeast Asia plays a key role in global economies and
geopolitics, especially in light of its strategic position
bordering China and India. This Very Short Introduction explores
the contemporary character of Southeast Asia's national societies
through the lens of their historical evolution, from the eras of
indigenous kingdoms and colonies under Western rule to the
present's independent nation states. Deftly combining historical
analysis and geopolitical insights, the book paints a bird's eye
view of contemporary Southeast Asia as a community of diverse
societies and traditions as well as a political theater-of-action
nested between India and China and tangled in global economic
traffic patterns, balance of powers, and environmental forces. As
James R. Rush explains, archaic structures, such as religious and
ethnic rivalries, tenacious feudal hierarchies, and age-old trade
and migration patterns, remain rooted in today's Southeast Asia
beneath the surface of modern national governments. The book draws
on a wide range of examples from the major nations, including the
ethno-religious violence in Myanmar, the Muslim-led rebellion in
the southern Philippines, the Thai-Cambodian territorial rivalries,
the Confucian-inspired governance in Singapore, the military rule
and democratization in Indonesia, the environmental consequences of
agribusiness, mining, and unchecked urbanization, and the big-power
alignments and tensions involving the United States, China, and
Japan. By delving into the cultural, political, and geographical
background of Southeast Asia, Rush shows that Southeast Asia is
unquestionably modern, but it is modern in distinctively Southeast
Asian ways.
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