Security issues have been a contrast and often dominant theme in maritime Southeast Asia, with few regions of the world as prone to political instability and lack of government authority. This reflects the fractured state of the region and the consequences of colonialism. More recently, the rise of pan-global militant Islamism has provided its own ideological and security overlay. But militant Islam is not new to this region and many of the current conflicts have their roots in events decades and even centuries old. This book considers a range of security issues that have affected archipelagic Southeast Asia, addressing sites of conflict that correspond to the breadth of the Indonesian claim to its own unity, from Sabang in Aceh to Merauke in West Papua and including Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. The contributors are specialist scholars who have insights born of experience, in many cases directly in the conflict environments they write about.
They offer insights that are not ordinarily available to the outside observer, or even to scholars who study the region more generally and which are a valuable resource in understanding the tensions that beset this intriguing region.