Covering Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Timor-Leste, the case studies in this book explore the relevance of security sector governance and reform for political transition, democratization, and peace-building in Asia. Examining the prospects for security sector governance within each case - through the lens of political reconciliation, government legitimacy, civil-military relations, and democratic accountability - the book examines issues of political will, local/national ownership, and the influence of external actors in domestic reform contexts.

Successful reform of the security sector has been regarded as pivotal for a successful transition from authoritarianism to democracy by Western donors. A global cast of contributors examines SSR in a variety of policy fields in Southeast Asia, paying specific attention to the adaption of 'Western' reform concepts by local actors.

Peacekeeping and the Asia-Pacific explores the politics, challenges, and future of UN peacekeeping operations from the Asia-Pacific. The first section looks at contributions from the sub-regions: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. The second section of the book looks at individual country case studies including: Australia, Solomon Islands, Japan, and Thailand. The third, and concluding, section consists of a theoretical summary on the central conceptual theme of Asian motivations for PKO contributions. This content was originally published in vols. 18:3-4 and 19:3-4 of the Journal of International Peacekeeping.

This book assesses the extent to which an emphasis on national security and prioritization of state interests has dominated governance policy-making in Northeast and Southeast Asia, at the expense of human security, human development, and human rights. The findings are that in many cases, there are embedded structural obstacles to achieving human-centered governance objectives in the region. These relate to the role of the military, historical authoritarian legacies, and new authoritarian trends. Contributors examine not only the most obvious instances of military domination of governance in the region (North Korea with its “Military First” philosophy, Thailand since the 2014 coup, and Myanmar with its long history of military rule), but also less well known examples of the influence of conflict legacies upon governance in Cambodia, Timor-Leste, and Laos, as well as the emergence of new reservoirs of power and resources for the forces of authoritarianism.

This book explores hybrid peacebuilding in Asia, focusing on local intermediaries bridging the gaps between incumbent governments and insurgents, national leadership and the grassroots constituency, and local stakeholders and international intervenors. The contributors shed light on the functions of rebel gatekeepers in Bangsamoro, the Philippines, and Buddhist Peace monks in Cambodia to illustrate the mechanism of dialogue platforms through which gaps are filled and the nature of hybrid peace is negotiated. The book also discusses the dangers of hybrid peacebuilding by examining the cases of India and Indonesia where national level illiberal peace was achieved at the expense of welfare of minority groups. They suggest a possible role of outsiders in hybrid peacebuilding and mutually beneficial partnership between them and local intermediaries.

This path-breaking new textbook provides a broad overview of the core concepts, actors and activities involved in building security and justice after conflict, as well as challenges and lessons learned in this field. Drawing attention to the principles which guide – or should guide – this kind of work, as well as using practical examples throughout, the book covers a uniquely wide range of issues in peacebuilding – from transitional justice and disarmament to security sector reform and human rights. It concludes by considering both the regional and more far-reaching impacts of conflict, including such global phenomena as terrorism, piracy and organised crime. With a decade of experience working in post-conflict zones for the UN and other organisations, and a further 10 years in academia and as a consultant for various international organisations, the author's unparalleled expertise on the topic and her accessible writing style make this book the essential guide to postgraduate and upper-level undergraduate courses on peace and conflict studies. The text is also important supplemental reading for those studying war, peace, development, security or IR in a wider context and for practitioners and policy-makers in the field of peacebuilding.

This fully updated third-edition of Contemporary Peacemaking is a state of the art overview of peacemaking in relation to contemporary civil wars. It examines best (and worst) practice in relation to peace processes and peace accords. The contributing authors are a mix of leading academics and practitioners with expert knowledge of a wide arrays of cases and techniques. The book provides a mix of theory and concept-building along with insights into ongoing cases of peace processes and post-accord peacebuilding. The chapters make clear that peacemaking is a dynamic field, with new practices in peacemaking techniques, changes to the international peace support architecture, and greater awareness of key issues such as gender and development after peace accords. The book is mindful of the intersection between top-down and bottom-up approaches to peace and how formal and institutionalized peace accords need to be lived and enacted by communities on the ground.

This book examines the theme of human–animal interactions contextualized against the idea of the Anthropocene. Focused on China and its immediate Asian borderlands, this interdisciplinary collection provides a powerful and insightful analysis of the ecological challenges that mankind’s traditional activities have created. Through in-depth case studies, each focusing on a particular human–animal dynamic, the book contextualizes and advances the understanding of existing environmental and ecological problems faced by local communities in Asia. In particular, the book hopes to transcend the duality of the nature versus culture debate by locating animal-ecological problems in the behavior of human institutions, beliefs, and practices, which are often affected by prevailing cultural proclivities, political ideologies, economic interests, and scientific agendas. Through interrogation of theoretical concepts of Anthropocene and human–animal binary, the volume highlights the controversial debates that follow their usage as well as their empirical utility understanding human– animal interactions historically, thereby engaging a broader interdisciplinary conversation increasingly links these two fields together. Providing a platform for discussion and dialogue for a wide audience, this book will appeal to students and scholars of environmental history and politics, anthropology, political science and policy studies, China studies, and Asian studies more generally.

The period between 2001 and 2006 saw the rise and fall of an internationally supported effort to bring a protracted violent conflict in Sri Lanka to a peaceful resolution. A ceasefire agreement, signed in February 2002, was followed by six rounds of peace talks, but growing political violence, disagreements over core issues and a fragmentation of the constituencies of the key parties led to an eventual breakdown. In the wake of the failed peace process a new government pursued a highly effective ‘war for peace’ leading to the military defeat of the LTTE on the battlefields of the north east in May 2009. This book brings together a unique range of perspectives on this problematic and ultimately unsuccessful peace process. The contributions are based upon extensive field research and written by leading Sri Lankan and international researchers and practitioners. The framework of ‘liberal peacebuilding’ provides an analytical starting point for exploring the complex and unpredictable interactions between international and domestic players during the war-peace-war period. The lessons drawn from the Sri Lankan case have important implications in the context of wider debates on the ‘liberal peace’ and post conflict peacebuilding – particularly as these debates have largely been shaped by the ‘high profile’ cases such as Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. This book is of interest not only to Sri Lanka specialists but also to the wider policy/practitioner audience, and is a useful contribution to South Asian studies.