One of the most challenging environmental threats to the ten countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been the haze, the sickening and deadly cloud of smoky pollution caused by widespread burning of land and forests in Indonesia. This book examines both the threat and response to it by analysing environmental cooperation in Southeast Asia from an international regime perspective. Tracing the development of regional cooperation on the haze and evaluating the effectiveness of the cooperation, the author argues that the haze crisis, combined with the economic crisis of 1997, has profoundly challenged the ASEAN modus operandi, and resulted in ASEAN’s efforts to establish an environmental regime to cope with environmental challenges. The emerging ASEAN haze regime is a unique case study of a regional environmental institution in multi-levelled global environmental governance. Based on in-depth original research, this case study is integrated into international relations, political science, and comparative political analysis literatures and contributes to a better understanding of processes within the regional organisation.

In order for the joint research by Network of ASEAN-China Think-tanks (NACT) to reach out to a much wider audience, NACT began to publish joint research of all Working Groups since 2019. This book is a collection of research papers contributed by ASEAN and China scholars who attended NACT Working Group Meeting on Regional Cooperation for Sustainable Energy Development on April 16, 2019 and NACT Working Group Meeting on Environmental Protection in ASEAN and China on May 17, 2019. The contributing scholars give their ingenious and insightful thoughts on ASEAN-China energy and environmental protection cooperation from either a national or a regional perspective. Two NACT Working Group Reports are also incorporated in the appendices of this book, including innovative and practical policy recommendations on strengthening ASEAN-China sustainable energy and environmental protection cooperation in existing priority areas and identifying new ones.

Comparative Environmental Regionalism focuses on environmental governance as a key issue of analysis to provide an important new conceptualisation of 'region' and regional power. Examining both interregionalism and regional integration, the book goes beyond the traditional study of micro-regions within the EU to examine regions and regional institutions across Asia, Africa and the Americas. The focus on forms of governance allows a consideration of the variety of processes and mechanisms developed to deal with collective issues in addition to formal institutional cooperation. Using globally based case studies, Comparative Environmental Regionalism will be of interest to students and scholars of environmental and regional politics, and international relations.

In the context of massive environmental problems in Southeast Asia, the countries in the region have decided – at least in some instances – to create regimes to solve these problems jointly. This empirical observation is surprising, given the Southeast Asian countries’ general reluctance to regional cooperation, the governance and budgetary constraints that are typical for developing countries and the huge heterogeneity of the involved countries in terms of environmental vulnerability, economic capacity and hegemonic power. This book analyzes the creation and effectiveness of two environmental regimes, one on transboundary haze pollution and a second on resource management of the Mekong. It will be shown that regime creation is extremely problematic and strategies to overcome conflicting actor constellations are mostly lacking.

Advancing the Regional Commons in the New East Asia highlights a number of interests which members of ASEAN and Plus Three countries collectively recognize. This set of common interests includes not only economic development but also social development. Written by nationals in their respective countries, the different chapters in this volume highlights the different foundations for such common interests and these reflect the different constructive ways in which ASEAN and Plus Three countries come to see a multi-strand cooperative partnership. The task of advancing the regional commons will involve efforts to recognise and nurture ASEAN’s and Plus Three’s common interests in terms of broad social development, managing regional security issues, the development of a regional infrastructure, and ensuring collective progress for all member countries. ASEAN becomes a community in 2015 and the idea of embracing, protecting, sustaining and advancing the regional commons become a vital process. Concurrently, APT has also realized that its contribution to the achieving goal of community and promoting regional commons is absolutely critical for both ASEAN and the Plus Three countries. Academics will find in this volume a clear analytical treatment of issues which regional groupings are currently facing and this can provide the basis for a comparative analysis. This volume will also be of interest to students and the general public looking for a systematic introduction to the successful implementation of cooperative ventures and also an assessment of the new collaborative energies which shape this dynamic region.

This edited volume introduces dynamic approaches to the study of Southeast Asia’s environmental diversity from different disciplinary perspectives at the interface between the natural and social sciences. It brings together research on the region’s environmental resource use and shared ecological challenges in the context of present day globalization to offer insights for possible future directions. The book introduces unique approaches to the study of Southeast Asia’s environmental changes and resource management under the influence of intensifying economic change in the region. It also examines the slow erosion of Southeast Asia’s rich environment and addresses serious issues such as the decrease in biodiversity and tropical forests, and the degradation of peat lands. At the same time, it discusses the social issues that are tied to energy-dependent growth and have intensified over the last two decades. It also analyzes the new roadmaps being created to protect, conserve, and manage the environment. By investigating the many ecological issues surrounding us, the volume brings to light the constant struggles we face while trying to develop a more inclusive and equitable approach to natural resources governance. This volume is relevant for students, academics and researchers who have an interest in the Southeast Asian environment and the way in which we use and interact with it.

This fully revised and updated edition of Donald E. Weatherbee’s widely praised text offers a clear and comprehensive introduction to international relations in contemporary Southeast Asia. The author analyzes the efforts of the Southeast Asian states to adapt collectively through the ASEAN Community-building process to the challenges of traditional intraregional security issues, the requirements of the international economy, and the political demands of nontraditional issues such as democracy, human rights, and environmental degradation. Weatherbee warns that autonomy, expressed in the claim to the ASEAN Community’s “centrality” to Asia, could be threatened by the strategic impact of China’s rise and America’s recommitment to regional strategic balance. An invaluable guide to the region, this thoughtful and lucid work will be an essential text for courses on Southeast Asia and on the international relations of the Asia-Pacific.

The environment is one of the defining issues of our times, and it is closely linked to questions and dilemmas surrounding economic development. Southeast Asia is one of the world’s most economically and demographically dynamic regions, and it is also one in which a host of environmental issues raise themselves. The Routledge Handbook of the Environment in Southeast Asia is a collection of 30 chapters dealing with the most significant scholarly debates in this rapidly growing field of study. Structured in four main parts, it gives a comprehensive regional overview of, and insight into, the environment in Southeast Asia. Wide-ranging and balanced, this handbook promotes scholarly understanding of how environmental issues are dealt with from diverse theoretical perspectives. It offers a detailed empirical understanding of the myriad environmental problems and challenges faced in Southeast Asia. This is the first publication of its kind in this field; a helpful companion for a global audience and for scholars of Southeast Asian studies from a variety of disciplines.

Nowhere is the connection between society and the environment more evident and potentially more harmful for the future of the world than in Asia. In recent decades, rapid development of Asian countries with very large populations has led to an unprecedented increase in environmental problems such as air and water pollution, solid and hazardous wastes, deforestation, depletion of natural resources and extinction of native species. This handbook provides a comprehensive survey of the cultural, social and policy contexts of environmental change across East Asia. The team of international experts critically examine a wide range of environmental problems related to energy, climate change, air, land, water, fisheries, forests and wildlife. The editors conclude that, with nearly half of the human population of the planet, and several rapidly growing economies, most notably China, Asian societies will determine much of the future of human impacts on the regional and global environments. As climate change-related threats to society increase, the book strongly argues for increased environmental consciousness and action in Asian societies. This handbook is a very valuable companion for students, scholars, policy makers and researchers working on environmental issues in Asia.

Yoshimatsu explores the causes and implications of the diverse degree of institution-building in East Asia by examining two processes of initiating and developing multilateral institutions in five policy areas: trade, finance, food security, energy security, and the environment.