多様な社会と伝統が入り混じり、近代国家としての顔を持ちながら一皮むけば宗教や民族の対立、封建主義的な階層制度、古くからの商習慣や移動様式が根強く残る東南アジア。米国・中国・日本の力関係に影響を及ぼし、またインドと中国の間に位置することから世界経済はもとより国際政治の舞台でその存在感を増しています。各国の現状にも触れながら、西欧諸国による植民地支配以降、今日までの歴史的進化という視点で東南アジア諸国を浮き彫りにします。
  

• Offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of Southeast Asia from the era of indigenous kingdoms to the present's independent nation states
• Paints a broad-brush portrait of contemporary Southeast Asia as a community of diverse societies and nation states as well as a geopolitical theater-of-action nested between India and China and enmeshed in global economic traffic patterns, power matrixes, and environmental forces
• Helps grasp Southeast Asia's great diversity of ethnicities, religions, and political systems, often little understood by Western audiences

 
and East Timor. Despite its extraordinary diversity of ethnicities, religions, and political systems, Southeast Asia plays a key role in global economies and geopolitics, especially in light of its strategic position bordering China and India. This Very Short Introductionexplores the contemporary character of Southeast Asia's national societies through the lens of their historical evolution, from the eras of indigenous kingdoms and colonies under Western rule to the present's independent nation states. Deftly combining historical analysis and geopolitical insights, the book paints a bird's eye view of contemporary Southeast Asia as a community of diverse societies and traditions as well as a political theater-of-action nested between India and China and tangled in global economic traffic patterns, balance of powers, and environmental forces.

As James R. Rush explains, archaic structures, such as religious and ethnic rivalries, tenacious feudal hierarchies, and age-old trade and migration patterns, remain rooted in today's Southeast Asia beneath the surface of modern national governments. The book draws on a wide range of examples from the major nations, including the ethno-religious violence in Myanmar, the Muslim-led rebellion in the southern Philippines, the Thai-Cambodian territorial rivalries, the Confucian-inspired governance in Singapore, the military rule and democratization in Indonesia, the environmental consequences of agribusiness, mining, and unchecked urbanization, and the big-power alignments and tensions involving the United States, China, and Japan. By delving into the cultural, political, and geographical background of Southeast Asia, Rush shows that Southeast Asia is unquestionably modern, but it is modern in distinctively Southeast Asian ways.