> Skip to content
  • Published: 22 July 2025
  • ISBN: 9789815162080
  • Imprint: PRH SEA
  • Format: Paperback
  • RRP: $37.99
Categories:

From Southeast Asia to Indo-Pacific

Culture, Identity, and the Return to Geopolitics




An authoritative account of key geopolitical changes affecting Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia was created by geopolitics; it might die with it.

The end of the Cold War in the early 1990s marked the high point of Southeast Asia’s rise on the global stage. But the tide is turning now.

The previous era of great power rivalry actually made the rise of Southeast Asia possible. In its fight against communism, the US extended a security umbrella over the pro-Western nations. It also stimulated common purpose
and unity among nations due to their fear of being entangled into great power intervention. This led to the creation and consolidation of ASEAN. The resulting rapid economic growth created greater domestic and regional stability.

Will the return of geopolitics have a similar impact? This is no means assured. In fact, the opposite could happen. The new geopolitics is quite different from the old.

The fate of the region looks increasingly uncertain; the question arises: has Southeast Asia passed its ‘use by date’?

  • Published: 22 July 2025
  • ISBN: 9789815162080
  • Imprint: PRH SEA
  • Format: Paperback
  • RRP: $37.99
Categories:

About the author

Amitav Acharya

Amitav Acharya Distinguished Professor and the UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance, School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC. His major works on Southeast Asia include: The Quest for Identity: International Relations of Southeast Asia (Oxford, 2000); Constructing a Security Community in Southeast Asia: ASEAN and the Problems of Regional Order, 3 edns. (Routledge, 2001, 2002, 2014), Whose Ideas Matter: Agency and Power in Asian Regionalism (Cornell and ISEAS, 2009); Civilizations in Embrace: The Spread of Ideas and the Transformation of Power (Singapore: ISEAS, 2012); The Making of Southeast Asia (Cornell and ISEAS, 2013); and East of India, South of China: Sino-Indian Encounters in Southeast Asia (Oxford 2017). His articles and op-eds have appeared in International Organization, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, International Affairs, World Politics, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune/ Global New York Times, Times of India, Australian Financial Review, and YaleGlobal Online. He has been interviewed by BBC, CNN, CNBC, and National Public Radio (NPR) and other world media.

Also by Amitav Acharya

See all
penguin pop image
penguin pop image