This book considers the conflict and civil war that has ravaged Burma, and considers the implications that conflict has had for Burma's development and prospects for democratization.

In May 1998 the fall of Suharto marked the beginning of a difficult and multi-layered transition process. It was accompanied by intensified conflict in the political arena, a dramatic increase of ethnic and religious violence and the danger of national disintegration. Ten years after the collapse of the New Order, Indonesia has made significant progress, however the quality of democracy is still low.

Theoretically innovative and empirically sound, this book is an in-depth analysis of the Indonesian reform process since 1998. Marco Bunte and Andreas Ufen bring together a...

Armed separatist movements in Papua, East Timor and Aceh have been a serious problem for Indonesia's central government. This book examines the policies of successive Indonesian governments to contain secessionist forces, focusing in particular on Jakarta's response towards the armed separatist movement in Aceh. Unlike other studies of separatism in Indonesia, this book concentrates on the responses of the central government rather than looking only at the separatist forces. It shows how successive governments have tried a wide range of approaches including military repression, offers of...

This book focuses on social and cultural trends in present-day Hadrami Arab societies in Eastern and Central Indonesia, and the history of the Hadrami Arab people, which demonstrates an early form of globalization. For centuries migration has played a vital part in Hadrami adaptation. External forces, such as the expanding powers of the Portugese in the Indian Ocean and the Turkish conquering Yemen, and internal forces like poverty, droughts and political unrest as well as trading opportunities and missionary work instigated migration movements. While some Hadrami Arabs sought work in...

In the late 1990s, prominent scholars of civil-military relations detected a decline in the political significance of the armed forces across Southeast Asia. A decade later, however, this trend seems to have been reversed. The Thai military launched a coup in 2006, the Philippine armed forces expanded their political privileges under the Arroyo presidency, and the Burmese junta successfully engineered pseudo-democratic elections in 2010.

This book discusses the political resurgence of the military in Southeast Asia throughout the 2000s. Written by distinguished experts on military...

This book examines Muslims in Singapore, analysing their habits, practices and dispositions towards everyday life, and also their role within the broader framework of the secularist Singapore state and the cultural dominance of its Chinese elite, who are predominantly Buddhist and Christian. Singapore has a highly unusual approach to issues of religious diversity and multiculturalism, adopting a policy of deliberately 'managing religions' - including Islam - in an attempt to achieve orderly and harmonious relations between different racial and religious groups. This has encompassed...

Gender and Transitional Justice provides the first comprehensive feminist analysis of the role of international law in formal transitional justice mechanisms. Using East Timor as a case study, it offers reflections on transitional justice administered by a UN transitional administration. Often presented as a UN success story, the author demonstrates that, in spite of women and children's rights programmes of the UN and other donors, justice for women has deteriorated in post-conflict Timor, and violence has remained a constant in their lives.

This book provides a gendered...