The essays in this volume examine United States-East Asian relations in the framework of global history, incorporating fresh insights that have been offered by scholars on such topics as globalization, human rights, historical memory, and trans-cultural relations.

This collection makes a compelling case for the importance of studying ceremony and ritual in deepening our understanding of modern democratic parliaments. It reveals through rich case studies that modes of behaviour, the negotiation of political and physical spaces and the creation of specific institutional cultures, underpin democracy in practice