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, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), avian influenza and terrorism. The global political and economic landscape has also changed radically after the 9/11 attack (2001) and the Iraq war (2004). Unfortunately, after the fall of Suharto in 1998, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) lost its leadership and the organisation 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 leaders with regard to the diversion of foreign direct investments (FDIs) to both countries.
However, the region has begun to engage in both China's and India's development and there is now greater confidence in the region in managing competition from the two Asian giants, as well as maintaining the momentum of national economic growth.