Development Strategies, Identities, and Conflict in Asia explores the links between Asian governments' development strategies and the nature and dynamics of inter-group violence, analyzing variations in strategies and their impacts through broad comparative analyses, as well as case studies focused on eight countries.

Many geographically diverse regions in the world contain a rich variety of cultures within them. While some have many socio-cultural similarities, tensions can still arise to make such areas unstable and vulnerable. Intercultural Relations and Ethnic Conflict in Asia is a critical reference source for the latest scholarly research on the economic, political, and socio-cultural disputes occurring throughout various South Asian countries and the effects of these struggles on citizens and governments. Highlighting pertinent issues relating to patterns of conflict, the role of media outlets, and governmental relations, this book is ideally designed for academicians, upper-level students, practitioners, and professionals.

This collection of 13 case studies examines the challenges faced by media practitioners reporting on conflicts across the diverse media ecologies of Asia. Topics covered include; media bias; resource limitations; professionalism; government intervention; poor working conditions and pay and physical and financial security.

Key events in Asia’s recent history have included the end of the Cold War, the Asian Economic Crisis and the ‘war on terror’. This is a critical assessment of these events, and of the interplay of security and economics in shaping political regimes and modifying market systems. Based on the notion that market systems are inherently political and conflict-ridden, this collection clarifies and explains the conflicts shaping the path of neoliberal globalization. Collectively it represents a disciplined and systematic address of four overarching questions: * What are the significant conflicts emanating from neoliberal globalization, and what are their implications? * What are the implications of new security concerns for these conflicts, and what are their impacts? * How are conflicts associated with globalization and security affecting social and economic policy directions? * Can these directions be reconciled with the reproduction of existing political regimes, or do they threaten their basis? In addressing these questions, the essays depict neoliberal globalization – in the new security context – as being able to accommodate a range of political regimes. This fascinating collection is a must-read for those with a professional interest in the region post-9/11. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal Critical Asian Studies.

This book analyses four major long-standing and intractable conflicts in the Asia-Pacific region (the Korean Peninsula; the Taiwan Strait; the South China Sea (Spratly Islands); and India-Pakistan), and aims to identify the mechanisms used to manage these conflicts. International Conflict in the Asia-Pacific brings together in one volume four major international conflicts that have shaped the region, and studies how they evolved and how best to manage them. The book seeks to find a pattern common to the four conflicts and their management as well as taking note of variations among them, hereby aiming to establish what might be called the 'Asia-Pacific way of managing intractable conflicts'. This book will of much interest to students of international conflict management, Asian politics, security studies and IR in general. Jacob Bercovitch is Professor of International Relations in the Political Science Department at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Widely regarded as one of the most influential scholars in the field of international conflict resolution, he is author of more than 15 books and numerous articles. Mikio Oishi is a Visiting Fellow with the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (NCPACS), University of Otago and a Research Fellow with Political Science Programme of University of Canterbury.

This edited volume is an outcome of the first major collaborative project between Japanese economists and political scientists, funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The authors of the individual chapters show that Asian states play games of conflict and cooperation strategically by creating, changing, or destroying institutions. For them, conflict and cooperation are inseparable phenomena and are integral parts of states’ strategic interactions under constraints. Through the establishment of appropriate institutions that coordinate states’ actions, present conflict can be turned into stable cooperation in the future. No discernible difference exists in the extent of rationality between the East and the West, but substantial variations between regions or even within a region are found in institutions that are influenced by history and culture. Historical and cultural variations divide contemporary Asia, making regional institutional cooperation difficult and prompting some Asian states to use global or inter-regional arrangements in order to obtain benefits of cooperation. Qualifications are provided for this line of argument in the first chapter, which also discusses the affinity of international relations theory and game theory, with special attention to Japan and Asia. The following ten substantive chapters are developed based on the conceptual framework and, for integrity and coherence, are sub-grouped into four parts that correspond to major issues in international relations scholarship: (1) conflict management, (2) arms control, (3) trade, and (4) currency.

By examining the sometimes surprising and unexpected roles that culture and religion have played in mitigating or exacerbating conflicts, this book explores the cultural repertoires from which Southeast Asian political actors have drawn to negotiate the pluralism that has so long been characteristic of the region. Focusing on the dynamics of identity politics and the range of responses to the socio-political challenges of religious and ethnic pluralism, the authors assembled in this book illuminate the principal regional discourses that attempt to make sense of conflict and tensions. They examine local notions of "dialogue," "reconciliation," "civility" and "conflict resolution" and show how varying interpretations of these terms have informed the responses of different social actors across Southeast Asia to the challenges of conflict, culture and religion. The book demonstrates how stumbling blocks to dialogue and reconciliation can and have been overcome in different parts of Southeast Asia and identifies a range of actors who might be well placed to make useful contributions, propose remedies, and initiate action towards negotiating the region’s pluralism. This book provides a much needed regional and comparative analysis that makes a significant contribution to a better understanding of the interfaces between region and politics in Southeast Asia.

East Asia is a region deeply affected by conflict. Colonial, ideological, and national wars have left their scars and legacies on regional, international, and national governance. Yet East Asian post-conflict development experiences have been viewed as remarkably successful. The three largest economies of East Asia, Japan, China, and South Korea, have all experienced dramatic growth but immediately prior to their periods of expansion, all experienced the devastating impacts of international conflicts and/or civil upheaval. These post-conflict development ’success’ stories do not, however, tell the whole tale. Other states in East Asia and in particular certain regions within some of these states, while apparently emerging from similar conflictual backgrounds, have experienced far less positive transitions. This volume critically assesses measurements of success in East Asian post-conflict development from a human-centered perspective. This involves a major re-evaluation of accepted accounts of domestic governance and international relations in East Asia from both a comparative and inter-disciplinary viewpoint. Case study rich, this volume provides policy prescriptions for East Asian donors and actors in an effort to provide Asian solutions for Asian problems.

South Asia is a distinct geographical entity comprised of seven countries - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives (situated in the Indian Ocean). This book looks at these countries in a historical context, from inter-regional and international perspectives.

When the five Central Asian republics gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, expectations of violent conflict were widespread. Indeed, the country of Tajikistan suffered a five-year civil war from 1992 to 1997. The factors that the literature on civil wars in general and on the Tajikistan civil war in particular cites as the causes of war were also present in Uzbekistan – but this country had a peaceful transition. Examining this empirical puzzle by isolating the crucial factors that caused war to break out in Tajikistan but not Uzbekistan, this book applies a powerful comparative approach to the broader question of why civil wars occur. Based on fieldwork in both countries, it challenges many common explanations of civil war both generally and in Tajikistan in particular. This includes highlighting the importance of elites’ power perceptions, which have their origins in the interaction of structural-, process-, and network-related variables. Without examining these interactions, macro-structural explanations alone cannot explain the occurrence of civil war in one country and its absence in another. Applying the insights of bargaining theories of war from the literature on international relations to the civil war in Tajikistan, this book will be of interest to students of violent conflict, civil wars, Central Asia and Asian Politics.