Prominent scholars across the political divide and academic disciplines analyse how the dominant political parties in Malaysia and Singapore, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and the People's Action Party (PAP), have stayed in power. With a focus on developments in the last decade and the tenures of Prime Ministers Najib Tun Razak and Lee Hsien Loong, the authors offer a range of explanations for how these regimes have remained politically resilient.Contents:

Prominent scholars across the political divide and academic disciplines analyze how the dominant political parties in Malaysia and Singapore, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and the People’s Action Party (PAP), have stayed in power. With a focus on developments in the last decade and the tenures of Prime Ministers Najib Tun Razak and Lee Hsien Loong, the authors offer a range of explanations for how these regimes have remained politically resilient.

This clear and timely book presents the first sustained and structured analysis of globalization in the East Asian context, exploring the strategies used by East Asian countries to cope with the forces of globalization. Eschewing both neoliberal “hyperglobalization” chants and neorealist “globaloney” castigation, the authors integrate a broad conceptual framework with region- and country-specific case studies.Specifically, the book poses and addresses three major questions about Ea...

With Malaysia in the throes of sweeping political change, academic turned political activist and presently, Senator from Selangor state to the Parliament, Dr Syed Husin Ali traces how ethnicity has been manipulated, since Independence, by Malaysian politicians for their own gain to the detriment of the masses. In articles spanning more than three decades, collected for the first time here, he dissects the origins, fallacies and destructive nature of communal politics in Malaysia and examin...

In this timely book, a group of leading scholars provides a comprehensive assessment of China's polity, economy, and society. Taking the thirtieth anniversary of Beijing's adoption of reform and opening as an occasion to reflect on the course of development over the past three decades, the contributors consider where the country may be going in the future. Just as China has had enormous success in developing its economy, it continues to face equally enormous challenges across a wide variet...

Land is one of the world's most emotionally resonant resources, and control over it is fundamental to almost all human activity. From the local level to the global, we are often in conflict over the ground beneath our feet. But because human relationships to land are so complex, it can be difficult to think them through in a unified way. This path-breaking book aims to change that by combining insights from multiple disciplines to develop a framework for understanding the geopolitics of la...

China's Crisis of Success provides new perspectives on China's rise to superpower status, showing that China has reached a threshold where success has eliminated the conditions that enabled miraculous growth. Continued success requires re-invention of its economy and politics. The old economic strategy based on exports and infrastructure now piles up debt without producing sustainable economic growth, and Chinese society now resists the disruptive change that enabled earlier reforms. While...

China's rise as a global superpower has completely reshaped the landscape of international politics. As the country's authoritarian regime becomes increasingly assertive on the world stage, the United States grows ever more hostile to its Asian rival. Repressive moves by China in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, military activities in the South China Sea and Western measures against Chinese companies have only exacerbated tensions. While the great powers of East and West battle over hegemony, the w...

Many thought China's rise would fundamentally remake the global order. Yet, much like other developing nations, the Chinese state now finds itself in a status quo characterized by free trade and American domination. Through a cutting-edge historical, sociological, and political analysis, Ho-fung Hung details the competing interests and economic realities that temper the dream of Chinese supremacy—forces that are stymieing growth throughout the global South.Hung focuses on four comm...

Relations between Singapore and her immediate Malay neighbours have been perennially fraught with tension and misunderstanding. In making sense of this complex relationship, Lily Rahim explores the salience of historical animosities and competitive economic pressures, and Singapore’s janus-faced security and foreign economic policy orientation and ‘regional outsider’ complex. Focusing on Singapore’s relations with Malaysia, the book also examines the Indonesian dimension in bilateral relat...

Soft power has become a very popular concept in international affairs, appearing in government policy papers, academic discussions, and the popular media. In China, soft power has become one of the most frequently used phrases among political leaders, leading academics, and journalists. Defined against hard power, which often involves threat and coercion, soft power applies attraction, persuasion, and cooperation, finding its sources in culture, political values, and foreign policies. Chin...

Understanding Singapore Politics is written to address the dearth of a succinct overview on Singapore politics. This introductory text looks at the factors that shape the island-republic's domestic politics, the key institutions and issues in the city-state, electoral power as well as the political direction Singapore is likely to take in a post-Lee Kuan Yew era. The specific institutions covered for discussion include the mass media, trade unions, civil service and grassroots organisation...