The New Southeast Asia

Abstract

An extraordinary international change occurred in the 1980s and 1990s: the transformation of the dominant bipolar world of Communists and non-Communists to a more Fragmented and interdependent world of competing, multipolar centers of power, with the United States participating more as an equal than as superpower and the Soviet Union losing its vast empire. The democratization of previously authoritarian political systems, and the fading of ideological distinctions will have an impact on virtually all of the world’s nations, including those in Southeast Asia. Perhaps of most importance, economic relations have replaced security concerns as the most important issue of contemporary international relations.