Asia in Transition

This open access book provokes critical thinking regarding the most ambitious Chinese project since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The book presents extensive quality research and original insights in assessing the status of China’s outbound investment and construction projects under the BRI umbrella. Referring to case studies and projects of selected countries from Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East, the author sheds new light on the issues and problems associated with the BRI's implementation and discusses both the readjustments and prospects for the BRI. Finally, this book demarcates the limits and potential of the world’s second largest economy in pushing for the BRI, which is challenged by enormous domestic tensions and external pressures. It also identifies and analyzes potential new collaboration areas between the Belt and Road countries and China under the BRI framework in the context of the post-COVID-19 era. It provides an outstanding reference for academics, students, policymakers, and the business community working in areas of international affairs and Asian economics and development, particularly those interested in Sino-relations and Chinese power dynamics in the global world order.

This is an Open Access book. The international political economy is confronted by a number of overlapping crises. These include the climate emergency, rapid technological advancement, the high volume of globalised trade and financial flows, cross-border labour movement, rising inequality, geopolitical tensions, and frequent economic crises and natural disasters. Many developing countries are going through a period of urgent transformation and transition to adopt new policies to cope with such challenges and achieve and maintain sustainable and inclusive socioeconomic development. This path-breaking volume explores the issues shaping the response of Brunei Darussalam, long dependent on its oil and gas sector, to these challenges. The discussions presented here are framed by the notion of ‘development in transition’—a mix of well-designed policies driven by timely implementation, enforcement and monitoring, as well as international cooperation to ensure sustainable development and distribution of benefits on an equitable basis. Through fine-grained analyses of key economic sectors—including natural resources, employment patterns, financial services, global value chains, international trade, tourism and the role of the public sector—the contributors offer a critical assessment of Brunei’s policy responses. This transitional policy mix is situated in relation to the overarching development strategy called Wawasan Brunei 2035 (Brunei Vision 2035), which broadly maps onto the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. Academic scholars, university students and others interested in the study of contemporary Brunei and broader questions of economic transition in Asia will find this volume an invaluable resource for a deeper understanding of how development paths and priorities are being managed to meet pressing global and local challenges.

This volume consolidates chapters from across Southeast Asia as a means of discussing alternative development pathways. It presents radical re-imaginings of how development might look, considered alongside the growing disillusionment over mainstream development models. In suggesting alternative models of development, it reframes participatory processes from the developing world, discussing practices of decolonization, anti-capitalism, plurality, anti-racism, effacing patriarchy, and ecological sustainability, designed and executed by grassroot communities and civil society organisations (CSOs). The grassroots and social movement paradigms highlighted in this collection seek to challenge and change the dominant model of development instituted in ASEAN, which have largely failed in meaningfully addressing the issues faced by different sectors. That the book project springs from an engagement between scholars and on-the-ground practitioners means that several chapters combine reflective, case-based viewpoints. To this end, the book is relevant to scholars, students, and practitioners working in areas related to Southeast Asian politics, economy, and culture.

This transdisciplinary edited book explores new developments and perspectives on global Vietnam, touching on aspects of history, identity, transnational mobilities, heritage, belonging, civil society, linguistics, education, ethnicity, and worship practices. Derived from the Engaging With Vietnam: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue conference series, this cutting-edge collection presents new scholarship and also represents new ways of knowing global Vietnam. Over the past 10 years, knowledge production about Vietnam has diversified in various ways as globalization, the internationalization of higher education, and the digital revolution have transformed the world, as well as Vietnam. Whereas as late as a decade ago, knowledge about Vietnam was still largely the preserve of scholars in Vietnam and a coterie of related experts outside of the country at a select few universities, today we find scholars working on Vietnam in myriad contexts. This transformation has introduced new voices and new perspectives, which this book champions. A critical text engaging a range of historical and contemporary debates about Vietnam, this book is an indispensable volume for the Southeast Asian Studies student and scholar in the humanities and social sciences.

This open access book examines Malaysian politics using a linguistic perspective. It explores how language serves to (de)legitimise governance, and its subsequent policies and activities in Malaysia. Grounded in discourse studies, this edited volume presents research on the discourses produced by and on Barisan Nasional, Pakatan Harapan and Perikatan Nasional from 2008 to 2020, studying how political actors (de)legitimise their governance through discursive means. The thirteen original chapters select spoken, print and digital texts in English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil, and deploy varied theoretical and methodological approaches. Their linguistic analysis unearths the language features and strategies that facilitate (de)legitimation. It shows how political actors shape the discursive representation and evaluation of multiple concerns in Malaysia. Consequently, Discursive Approaches to Politics in Malaysia: Legitimising Governance improves our understanding of contemporary Malaysian political discourse. It is of interest to graduates and researchers in the field of discourse studies, seeking to understand the discursive contours of politics in this developing Asian country.