Foreword

Summary

The world is undergoing dramatic transformations in the wake of the crumbling of the Cold War order, and the ebbs and flows of these changes are not passing unnoticed in Southeast Asia. Indeed, the region is witnessing its own mini-versions of glasnost and perestroika, as countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, for instance, seek their niches in the emerging opportunities and constraints that characterize the international economic and political scene. This, coupled with the dynamism of the member states of ASEAN, makes Southeast Asia a particularly promising and exciting area – at a turning point in world history and human affairs. These developments have reinforced a growing awareness at the Institute for the need for a publication produced in and from the region and devoted exclusively to the geo-politics and geo-economics of Southeast Asia. Accordingly, the Institute inaugurated Regional Outlook last year.

Cast in a format and style that is unencumbered by lengthy analyses or commentaries, Regional Outlook provides succinct yet substantive and easily readable overviews and insights into the current geo-political and economic situations in the individual countries and the region as a whole, together with the likely trends over the next year or so. The Institute very much hopes that the review will serve as a useful and handy guide to the region's aspirations and prospects each year, in addition to casting a look ahead.

It is thus all the more pleasurable to wish Regional Outlook and the individual contributors all the best, as well as express the hope that Regional Outlook will circulate widely among all interested in the affairs of the region, and especially so among the busy executives, and other decision-makers in both the public and private sectors. In recording these expectations it is, of course, understood that responsibility for facts and opinions expressed in the review rests exclusively with the individual authors, and their interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views or policy of the Institute or its supporters.