Create Connect Sg

Create.connect@sg

Singapore

The Naga Challenged

This book is a sequel to The Naga Awakens: Growth and Change in Southeast Asia, published in 1997. While the 1997 book looked at the positive developments in the region, this book addresses the political, economic and cultural issues arising from the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis. Six years since the crisis, the region has been plagued by other issues such as the haze, SARS, avian influenza and terrorism. The global political and economic landscape has also changed radically after the 9/11 attack and the Iraq war. Unfortunately, after the fall of Suharto in 1998, the ASEAN lost its leadership and the organization floundered without much regional coherence. All these global and regional events have affected the developmental trajectories and political developments of states in the region. Economically, Southeast Asia has been overshadowed by the dynamic economic prowess of China and India in the last five years and there have been serious reservations by Southeast Asian political leader