Abstract: As in other parts of the world, Donald Trump’s victory in the November 2016 US presidential election came as a major shock to Southeast Asia. Few observers had seriously countenanced a Trump win, and what it might mean for Southeast Asia, the wider Asia-Pacific region and the liberal world order. Many, perhaps most, had expected Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to emerge as the victor, and thus, by and large, to see a continuation of the policies implemented by President Barack Obama, including his signature “pivot” to Asia, and Southeast Asia in particular. Regional shock quickly gave way to anxiety, even alarm. Given Trump’s vitriolic rhetoric during the campaign, what would the new administration’s ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Southeast Asia did not figure in the 2016 US presidential campaign, and it has not emerged as a foreign policy focus in the early days of the Trump administration. Barring a major terrorist attack against US interests emanating from the region, Southeast Asia is not likely to be a priority in the administration and will receive less attention from the White House than it did in the Obama administration. Some benign neglect may benefit US–Southeast Asia relations, as long as they are left in the hands of experienced officials who are allowed to exercise some degree of judgement. However, it is not possible at this point to determine if this will be the case. President Trump has signalled his emphasis on ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: As the weeks of his presidency grow into months, President Donald J. Trump’s initial isolationist leanings have morphed into knee-jerk internationalism under an “America First” geostrategic mantra “to make America great again”. Ushering in the most controversial presidential transition in recent memory, Trump has catalyzed the geopolitical tectonic power shifts that have been underway since at least the turn of the new century. While his cordial rhetoric towards Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has spawned myriad challenges for the European Union’s dealings with the Kremlin — with knock-on effects for the remaking of the broader Middle East — Trump’s tough talk on China will guarantee heightened tensions in ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: A month into the tumultuous Trump administration, no key officials directly relevant to US–Southeast Asia relations had been nominated, although a torrent of Tweets as well as spasmodic statements and a handful of high-level official visits provided clues, albeit mixed, about the prospects for ties between the United States and Southeast Asia — a region that is among America’s top five global trade partners, the most important destination in Asia for foreign direct investment, home to two treaty allies and a growing number of politico-security partners, and a location of geo-political, geo-economic and order contestation among multiple major powers.2 In such uncertain circumstances, it may be ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Is President Donald Trump educable? Much lies on the answer to this question when it comes to the domestic and foreign policies of his administration. At this early stage of the Trump administration, one can only make partially informed guesses, and this is the spirit in which this essay is written. I would wager that Trump is more educable on security issues than he is on economic issues. If that is the case, we should expect to see more continuity than change in the administration’s approach to security in East and Southeast Asia on the one hand, but, on the other hand, change — in worrisome directions — rather than continuity is likely to characterize the administration’s economic policies towards the ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: With its primary stated goal of re-working the nature of America’s relationship with the rest of the world, the administration of President Donald Trump comes at an awkward time for Southeast Asia. Regional states are at a moment where they are adjusting domestic politics, their relationships with each other and the main inter-governmental organization, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). They are also responding to China, whose role in the region is evolving as Beijing moves into a new stage in its decades-long development into a major world power that is more ready to take robust positions on issues where its interests sometimes diverge with those of its neighbours. Amid these changes ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: As promised, on 23 January 2016, President Donald Trump withdrew the United Sates from the completed negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In the process, as he did prior to taking office, he stressed his preference for bilateral trade deals. The executive order he signed was a highly symbolic act. The President needed only to refrain from sending the agreement to Congress. His signature, however, served to underscore the finality of his decision. The message: Not only is the United States pulling out of TPP, but neither will it seek to “fix” the agreement. Similarly, his emphasis on bilateral deals is a determinative sign that the idea will not be resurrected under a new guise. ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: The early days of the Trump administration have shown him to be what he appeared to be during the campaign and in his earlier career: narcissistic, capricious and willing to play to the anxieties and prejudices of the crowd. Although his administration remains far from fully formed — as of mid-February 2017, Trump had nominated just 34 officials for 549 positions, and only 14 of his cabinet nominees had been confirmed — its basic contours are clear enough. He has chosen a cabinet and advisory team that includes people who advocate greater protections and freedoms for US businesses, who have expressed extreme anti-Muslim and socially conservative attitudes and who deny that humans are responsible for climate ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: The accession of Donald Trump to the US presidency has triggered serious discussion within Australia’s policy community over the future of Australia–US security relations and Australia’s role in Southeast Asia. During his first days in office, President Trump pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, an integral part of his predecessor’s “pivot strategy” towards Asia and an initiative strongly supported by the Australian government. The United States’ withdrawal from the TPP has led various Australian commentators to question Washington’s commitment to maintain a viable economic and strategic presence in the Asia Pacific.1 Such uncertainty is aggravated by Canberra’s growing disquiet over ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Donald Trump’s electoral victory on 8 November 2016 came as something of a shock to the people of Indonesia. Once the news had sunk in, predictions on what Trump’s victory meant for Indonesia could be divided into three scenarios: Trump could carry out his campaign promises; he could abandon those promises; or he could adjust his alarming rhetoric and adopt a more reassuring tone. Within a couple of weeks of being inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States on 20 January 2017, the international community, including Indonesians discovered that the new US President not only continued to speak in an alarming manner, but also that he intended to make good on his campaign promise to “Make America Great ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: On 7 August 2016, Thais voted to endorse a new draft constitution that significantly curtailed the political power voters had enjoyed under both the 1997 and 2007 Constitutions. The constitutional referendum was called by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the military junta that seized power in the 22 May 2014 coup d’état.1 Headed by Prime Minister and former army chief General Prayut Chan-ocha, the NCPO followed previous recent Thai juntas (including those responsible for the coups of 1977, 1991 and 2006) in abrogating the existing constitution and later forming a constitution-drafting committee tasked with preparing a new charter. The NCPO leadership was the most hardline group of ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: In September 2015, Tsai Ing-wen, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of Taiwan, declared that if she won office a major foreign policy initiative of her administration would be a “New Go South Policy” (New GSP).1 After her victory in the January 2016 presidential election, and inauguration in May, one of Tsai’s first moves was to set up an Office of New Go South Policy which was placed directly under the Presidential Office. This office was headed by James C.F. Huang, a former foreign minister who served from 2006 to 2008 under the administration of the previous DPP President Chen Shui-bian. In broad terms, the Go South Policy (GSP) refers to initiatives aimed at ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Pedagogy is now widely recognized as an integral part of International Relations (IR), with linkages traceable on many levels. Teaching can, of course, “inform scholarship”, either through informal processes of joint discovery,1 or by more formal frameworks that specifically involve “students as researchers”.2 More profoundly, however, teaching plays a role in knowledge production. As many scholars have pointed out, the IR universe is not comprehensible without studying what goes on inside its many classrooms. If “the teaching of IR helps shape self-understandings of the discipline”, and is part of the subject’s “constitution of meaning”,3 then it is important to “take a more direct interest in how world ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Expectations of Southeast Asian naval development generally follow two lines of thought, both rooted in the Realist paradigm of International Relations. The first is that Southeast Asian nations will respond to a deteriorating threat environment — marked by China’s increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea — by investing more in defence forces, including naval forces. For example, Australian strategist Hugh White argues that “Indonesia’s growing economy will allow it to spend more on its armed forces, especially on sophisticated aircraft, ships and submarines, and it may feel compelled to do so as Asia’s wider strategic environment changes.”1 The second view is that as Southeast Asian states overcome their ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Access to healthcare has long been a topical issue in developing countries, in which healthcare services are often underprovided, of low quality and too costly for a large proportion of the population. In recent years, as an increasing number of low and middle-income countries have taken significant steps to address this issue, the idea of universal health coverage (UHC) has gained traction among policymakers, advocates and citizens. For its proponents, UHC is a crucial tool to balance inequities in access to healthcare in developing countries, as it ensures the removal of financial barriers and reduces overall healthcare costs by pooling a large base of users. Key international institutions such as the World ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: This collection of essays on the historical precedents, anthropology, political economy and prospects of conflict and peace in Kachin State, Northern Myanmar makes an outstanding contribution to the literature. It should be regarded as essential reading on these issues, together with the editor, Mandy Sadan’s earlier account of Kachin histories (Being and Becoming Kachin: Histories Beyond the State in the Borderworlds of Burma, Oxford University Press 2013, reviewed in the December 2015 issue of Contemporary Southeast Asia). Sadan has brought together a diverse and stimulating collection of voices, ranging from well-established analysts to first-time authors. Veteran Myanmar-watcher Martin Smith ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Observers of Vietnam frequently consider the country as a case study of successful economic reforms without corresponding political reforms. Since the structure of the single-party state has remained virtually intact since reunification in 1976 under the rule of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), it is tempting to conclude that no significant political change has occurred. Hai Hong Nguyen’s book on “implementation of democracy at commune and ward levels” (thực hiện dân chủ ở cấp xã, phường, thị trấn), commonly referred to in English as “grassroots democracy” (GRD), is a welcome corrective to a static view of Vietnamese politics. Hai’s research, based on a wealth of Vietnamese documentation as ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: The past three decades have witnessed major constitutional changes in Southeast Asian countries, most notably in the Philippines (1987), Laos (1991, 2003, 2015), Thailand (1991, 1997, 2006, 2007, 2016), Vietnam (1992, 2001, 2013), Cambodia (1993), Indonesia (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002), Timor-Leste (2002) and Myanmar (2008). These changes have, of course, significantly impacted the legal and political landscapes of these states, even those with authoritarian and hybrid regimes. These constitutional changes also reflected the growth and complexity of the competition and contestation for constitutionalism in Southeast Asia; a process in which different political actors bargain, confront, clash and settle on ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Elections in Cambodia present something of a paradox. On the one hand, Prime Minister Hun Sen and his long-ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) enjoy massively lopsided advantages over their opponents. The CPP controls the security forces, the civil service and the press, as well as the state institutions tasked with administering the electoral process — all of which have helped guarantee its victory in the past four national polls. On the other hand, Cambodian elections have never become entirely meaningless rituals. At the last election in July 2013, the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) saw a huge surge of public support that slashed the CPP’s majority in the 123-seat National Assembly ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Between 1999 and 2001, rival ethnic and religious communities fought violent conflicts in five Indonesian provinces which led to large-scale loss of life, displacement and destruction. In the decade and a half since then, a series of in-depth quality academic studies have given us a good understanding of the causes and dynamics of most of these conflicts. However, among these conflicts the one in Maluku Province — perhaps the most severe of the five — has been relatively understudied. With Religious Violence and Conciliation in Indonesia, Sumanto Al Qurtuby has done an excellent job of helping to fill that gap. Indeed, he has written one of the best studies of the Maluku conflict. By synthesising ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Almost two decades after the fall of the Suharto regime in May 1998, we still know very little about the student movement that was the driving force behind Indonesia’s turn to democracy. In the post-Suharto era, the student movement lost the limelight to other actors better equipped for the game of politics, and thus moved ever deeper into the realm of collective memory as a feverish episode in history, aligned with the longer history of pemuda (youth) activism in Indonesia. Yet, as Doreen Lee persuasively argues in Activist Archives, it is from the edges of history that “pemuda fever” continues to “infuse the present with urgency and legitimacy” (p. 3), animating a “youthful culture of democracy” that ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Michael Wesley’s Restless Continent is a great read. It is bold in its ambitions, analyzing the future of Asia’s international relations and its assumed centrality for global peace and security. It is vast in its coverage, ranging from the founding myth of Melaka to a recent naval stand-off between China and Japan, from the location of a small Indian border town to the sociological impact of colonial European claims of civilizational superiority on current tensions among Asian neighbours. It addresses very large and pressing questions from the effects of the end of US strategic dominance in Asia to the uncertain relationship between growing Asian economic integration and interdependence centred on China, and ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Reinventing Indonesia charts the development of Indonesia’s political economy and path to democracy since the country achieved independence in 1945. Since the downfall of Suharto’s authoritarian regime in May 1998, Indonesia has been regarded as one of the most successful examples of democratization in the world. This co-authored book offers insightful views on the history of Indonesia’s political economy, some of the key challenges it faced and how the government dealt with them. The authors, Ginandjar Kartasasmita and Joseph J. Stern, begin their book by briefly charting Indonesia’s sixty-year journey from independence to democracy. They summarize the country’s regime changes from President ... Read More Keywords: Southeast Asia; Trump, Donald,; United States; National security; Security, International; Australia; Indonesia; Elections; Constitutional law; Referendum; Taiwan; ASEAN; Navies; Sea-power; Medical policy; Public health; Medical care; Burma; Democrac PubDate: 2017-05-06T00:00:00-05:00
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