This paper uses household data from India to examine the economic and social status of village politicians, and how individual and village characteristics affect politician behavior while in office. Education increases the chances of selection to public o±ce and reduces the odds that a politician uses political power opportunistically. In contrast, land ownership and political connections enable selection but do not affect politician opportunism. At the village level, changes in the identity of the politically dominant group alters the group allocation of resources but not politician opportunism. Improved information °ows in the village, however, reduce opportunism and improve resource allocation.

Deforestation and forest degradation are some of the main contributors to anthropogenic climate change. Accordingly, policies to arrest deforestation or increase forest areas are proposed as important forms of climate change policy. This paper summarizes current proposals for addressing the contribution of forests to climate change, and the political problems of implementing these policies, especially in developing countries. The paper argues that current estimates of the likely sequestration benefits and costs of forest policies need to be tempered according to the political barriers and need for local consultation in formulating and implementing these proposals. These problems are likely to be most felt concerning current plans for Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD).

This paper discusses the smoke-haze episodes in the Southeast Asia region and how their occurrence can be related to climate variability and future climate change in the region. The haze episode over this region has been an almost yearly occurrence but becomes severe during the prolonged dry period associated with the El Niño phenomenon. The longest and most severe case was the episode of September to November 1997 that occurred in conjunction with the extreme 1997/98 El Niño. This event resulted in more than US$4 billion in economic losses to the region and a colossal 93% of the cost was incurred in Indonesia.

The ASEAN Heads of State/Government have proactively led ASEAN’s efforts to address climate change issues in the region and beyond. They have issued a declaration to the 2007 Bali UN Climate Change Conference which set the two-year road map for the current negotiations, and on 24th October 2009 issued a Joint Statement to the December 2009 Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference where a new climate change arrangement is expected to be concluded. The Road Map for an ASEAN Community 2009- 2015 adopted by the Leaders situates the ASEAN climate change agenda in the context of sustainable development outlining strategies and actions in the ASEAN Socio-cultural Community Blueprint, ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint, ASEAN Political-Security Community Blueprint, and the Initiative for ASEAN Integration 2nd Work Plan. ASEAN is therefore addressing climate change, not just through a policy on climate change, but through the framework of ASEAN Community building, with strategies and actions rooted in the various development and sectoral areas. This paper highlights the ASEAN climate change agenda, and actions planned to address climate change.

Asia is one continent which has the most dynamic and the fastest developing economies in the world. But Asia’s economic integration is developing too slowly and stands at the lowest level in the world. Many factors have affected Asia’s economic integration but, in the current global financial and economic crisis, it is necessary to strengthen Asian countries’ cooperation in finance, investment and trade to promote Asia’s economic integration. As the healthiest and most integrated regional organisation in Asia, ASEAN should be the centre and platform to promote Asia’s economic integration. So we should enlarge financial cooperation among ASEAN, China, Japan, and South Korea. We could firstly discuss creating the Eastern Asia super-sovereign reserve currency so that we create an official currency of East Asian nations, the “Asian Dollar” or “Asi”. The purpose of creating “Asi” is to keep its value stable in the long term, and to improve Asia’s economic integration.

The most remarkable aspect of China’s international development over the past thirty years has been its re-engagement with Southeast Asia. Until three decades ago China laboured under a self-imposed exile from the continent of which it is a part. In the early 1980s China had just fought a war with Vietnam, in which it lost at least 20,000 soldiers, and the other Southeast Asian states understandably viewed China with suspicion. India, along China’s south-western frontier, was politically close to the Soviet Union and had regarded China as a diehard enemy since the 1962 war. It was an Asian world that seemed to have expurgated China from its midst. The central kingdom was no longer central, but distinctly peripheral to the rest of the continent.

The new geopolitics of Southeast Asia is dominated by the emerging regional rivalry between China and the United States. The contest has been highlighted by incidents in the South China Sea where the US has made clear its interest in ensuring freedom of navigation and in the peaceful settlement of China’s disputes with smaller regional states. Some in the Pentagon project an ‘AirSea Battle’ in the region similar to the ‘AirLand Battle’ planned during the Cold War – a scenario given credence by US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta’s announcement at the Shangri-La Dialogue in June 2012 of an American naval force ‘rebalancing’ in the Pacific from the current 50 percent to 60 percent by 2020. More widely, historian Arne Westad describes Southeast Asia as ‘The decisive territory, on the future of which hangs the outcome of a great contest for influence in Asia.’1 Indeed, the rivalry extends well beyond maritime issues, and Southeast Asian states have been drawn into this contest, whether or not they have disputes with China in the South China Sea. What led to this strategic turn, how the maritime disputes might develop, and the diplomacy required to negotiate the tensions and determine the future of regional institutions...

"Political Parties in Palestine: Leadership and Thought." Michael Bröning. Palgrave Macmillan. January 2013. --- Political Parties in Palestine is an up-to-date elucidation of the Palestinian political landscape, aiming to offer vital background information on movements such as Hamas and Fatah, as well as smaller political factions that have defined the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades but, due to lack of available information, have not been subject to academic scrutiny. Michael Bröning’s book is an unquestionably important contribution to the study of Palestinian politics, and a must-read for anyone who hopes to better understand both intra-Palestinian political dynamics, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, writes Ilana Rothkopf.

"China’s Political Economy in Modern Times: Changes and Economic Consequences, 1800-2000." Kent Deng. Routledge. October 2012. --- This book aims to make an important contribution to the study of changes in China’s institutions and their impact on the national economy as well as ordinary people’s daily material life from 1800 to 2000. China’s Political Economy in Modern Times serves as a useful reference for readers who are interested in Chinese modern history and how China became the country it is today, writes Yan Yun.

"New Dynamics in East Asian Politics: Security, Political Economy and Society." Edited by Zhiqun Zhu. Continuum. April 2012. --- This collection highlights new features and developments in East Asian politics today. Chapters examine how China, Japan, North and South Korea, and Taiwan are responding to challenges such as globalization, information technology, and the global recession as well as the impact of resulting domestic and foreign policies for the region and the world. Hansley A. Juliano finds this a comprehensive and fascinating read, vital not only for policymakers and scholars, but suitable also for general readers interested in the transformations East Asia is undergoing.

"After the Great East Japan Earthquake: Political and Policy Change in Post-Fukushima Japan." Dominic Al-Badri and Gijs Berends (eds.). Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Press. June 2013. --- This book sets out to explore shifts in Japanese politics and policy-making following the Fukushima disaster, with perspectives offered by diplomats and policy experts at European embassies to Japan. The book addresses those policy areas most likely to be affected by the tragedy – politics, economics, energy, climate, agriculture and food safety – and describes how the sectors have been affected and what the implications are for the future. Useful reading for political scientists and policy makers, finds Hansley A. Juliano.

The EU has recently completed trade agreements with a number of different countries in Latin America, and is seeking further agreements in Asia. Maria Garcia looks at the EU’s recent history of trade negotiations, arguing that free trade agreements offer an important opportunity to ‘level the playing field’ for EU businesses facing competition from the United States, China, and beyond.

Ethnic conflicts have been plaguing the North Eastern states of India. The situation is so serious that in April 2000, while inaugurating a seminar, the Governor of Meghalaya pointed out that each community of the region was involved in violent conflicts with one or more of the other communities. He maintained that this violence was affecting the everyday life of the ordinary citizens in a manner that threatened their rights as members of a democratic society. What effect do these conflicts have on democratic governance? Are these conflicts related to the problems arising out of the introduction of modern democratic governance in traditional societies? How is tradition responding to modern governance? Many of the ethnic communities of the region are rooted in traditional tribal cultures, which some sections zealously guard. The most visible assertion of tradition is to be seen in the attempt to retain ‘traditional political authorities’ in the name of protecting traditional cultures. For instance, in Meghalaya, the most advanced of the hill states of North East India, certain sections are trying to revive virtually defunct tribal chiefdoms called Syiemships and are demanding direct funding for those institutions from the Government of India. How is modern governance dealing with tradition? Is the interaction between modernity and tradition in the area of governance aggravating ethnic and communal conflicts? These are some questions that seemed to be relevant in contemporary North-East India. To find answers to these questions we decided to look at the tribal state of Meghalaya. This state has been experiencing ethnic violence at almost regular intervals since 1979. But what is more important is that in this state the perception of the social reality itself seems to have acquired an ethnocentric character. A look at the programmes of all the major political parties shows that ethnicity governs the politics of this state. Each community in Meghalaya views social reality from its own perspective. This becomes clear from the fact that whether it is the political parties (even the national parties are national only in a formal sense)...

This paper examines the historical background and political processes behind the formation of Hizb-e Wahdat-e Islami Afghanistan (The Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan). It lays out the evolving political agendas and strategies of the party during the years of civil war, Taliban rule and the post-2001 political process. The author concludes that by 2009 the party was so fragmented and divided that the political weight it carried in Afghanistan bore little resemblance to what it had first enjoyed.

Much analysis of Pakistan’s government and civil service has been undertaken by political analysts and academicians, but rarely by an individual from within. As and when civil servants have written, they have made an unsuccessful attempt to emphasize their neutrality, quoting instances of how they resisted political pressure, argues Aminullah Chaudry. In Political Administrators, Chaudry shares personal experiences of his time as a civil servant, seeking to question existing literature on the topic. Elisabetta Iob finds that a lack of primary sources damages the book as a historical academic source.

Great Games, Local Rules charts how in the past quarter century, a new ‘great game’ has emerged in Central Asia pitting America against a newly aggressive Russia and a resource hungry China, all struggling for influence over one of the most volatile areas in the world. Annabelle Chapman finds this book promotes a more nuanced understanding of international presence in Central Asia.

Contributing to the growing discourse on political parties in Asia, this edited collection looks at parties in Southeast Asia’s most competitive electoral democracies of Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. Focusing on the prominence of clientelistic practices and strategies, both within parties as well as between parties and their voters, the authors argue that demonstrates that clientelism is extremely versatile and can take many forms. Hansley A. Juliano believes this book will be of interest to students and scholars of contemporary Southeast Asian politics, but feels some of the essays lack innovative thinking.

"Popular Culture in Asia." Lorna Fitzsimmons and John A. Lent (eds). Palgrave Macmillan. May 2013. --- Popular Culture in Asia consists of studies of film, music, television, anime, architecture, and computer-mediated communication in China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore. It aims to provide perspectives on relationships between Asian popular culture and a number of major socio-political issues and movements, including war responsibility, democratization, globalization, urbanization, modernization, and gender reconstruction. The articles included in this volume adeptly chart the ways in which popular culture can be simultaneously progressive and conservative, writes Ulises Moreno-Tabarez.

With the eyes of the world firmly placed on developments in Iraq and Israel and Gaza, it might be easy to forget the Obama Administration’s ‘pivot’ towards Asia, illustrated by the President’s tour of the region earlier this year. Sam Hazelgrove takes a close look at the state of the Asia “pivot”, writing that while the term itself may not be entirely accurate, there has still be a fundamental, yet nuanced, policy shift. He writes that much of Obama’s policy on Asia will depend on his Administration’s ability to develop a coherent approach to China.

In Indonesia, successful democratisation from military authoritarian rule has pushed the military ‘back to the barracks’ and restored the rule of law. This process of moving from authoritarian-military to civil-juridical authority has taken place in multiple ways across the political system, however most notably in the rise of the police as an institutional actor, the restoration of their authority over domestic and national security and law enforcement. Scholarship shows how criminality and the criminal contingent have been crucial in every way to state formation in Indonesia. Throughout history, the security institutions have mediated those forms of criminality and the state’s overarching relationship with the illicit. One of the ways the relationship between the state and criminal practices has manifested itself has been in the mechanisms of illicit extraction and accumulation broadly known as “corruption”. Despite the regularizing effects of democratisation, the security sector continues to be resourced primarily by a vast illicit economy, called the off-budget economy. I show how Polri’s new authoritative role in security and law enforcement has opened up the spoils of this economy to the police in two important criminal economies; the gift economy of indigenous Chinese traders and the illegal gambling economy in Jakarta. This thesis demonstrates how the transformation from military-coercive to civil juridical modalities of power has not improved the quality of Indonesia’s democracy or rule of law. Rather...