PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Thomas Parks has led research and managed aid programs across Southeast Asia with The Asia Foundation, and the Australian Government (DFAT) on geopolitics, security cooperation, ASEAN, economic development, conflict, and governance. He is a graduate of Harvard, USA, and Johns Hopkins SAIS, USA.
Southeast Asia's Multipolar Future is meticulously researched and written in a lively and engaging manner. Through numerous interviews and conversations, Tom Parks refreshingly offers a view from Southeast Asia and accurately captures the visions and wishes of the people in the region. He demonstrates that smaller countries can shape their own future even in the midst of great power rivalry. In the process, Parks sees a way forward that does not necessarily end in conflict for the United States, China, and the region. * Selina Ho, National University of Singapore, Singapore * By reminding us that the middle powers in and around Southeast Asia have an interest in, and an impact on, the trajectory of great power competition in the Indo-Pacific, Thomas Parks fills in spaces too often ignored by policy makers and commentators. This is required reading for everyone with an interest in Asia's future. * Allan Gyngell, National President, Australian Institute of International Affairs, Australia * Thomas Parks has written an important and timely book, which should be read in all the relevant capitals, especially Beijing and Washington D.C. Parks deftly locates Southeast Asia in the wider context of East Asia, South Asia, and Australasia. The region benefits from multipolarity. * Tej Bunnag, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand * Parks demonstrates Southeast Asia’s agency in the unfolding geopolitics of the region, smashing the trope that ASEAN states are just passive victims of great power maneuvering. A must read for scholars and policymakers focused on the Indo-Pacific. * Michael J. Green, University of Sydney, Australia * Nuanced and insightful, this book offers an essential corrective to portrayals of Southeast Asian states as pawns on a Sino-American chessboard. Parks instead shows the region to be a bamboo forest: Southeast Asian governments bend to geopolitical winds but remain strongly rooted in defending their interests and autonomy. Parks illuminates how Southeast Asians exercise agency as they alternately engage with and resist external powers to craft a multipolar regional order. Anyone keen to understand international relations in Southeast Asia should read this book. * John D. Ciorciari, University of Michigan, USA *
