The South China Sea Disputes: Past, Present, and Future by Nalanda Roy. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2016.

Reviewed in International Studies Review, Vol. 21, No. 4 (2019), pp. 728-9

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Overall, the book synthesizes earlier research and secondary sources to provide a short and accessible account of the conflicting claims and interests in the South China Sea. Its chief value lies in its ability to balance historical contexts and contemporary challenges between the different claimants’ perspectives without privileging one over another.

Maritime Security and Indonesia: Cooperation, Interests, and Strategies by Senia Febrica (Abingdon: Routledge, 2017)

Unresolved Border, Land and Maritime Disputes in Southeast Asia: Bi-and Multinational Conflict Resolution Approaches and ASEAN’s Centrality, edited by Alfred Gerstl and Mária Strašáková (Leiden: Brill, 2017)

Reviewed in Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Vol. 54, No. 2 (2018): pp. 270-274

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The two books advance our understanding of the different historical and policy contexts surrounding territorial disputes and security cooperation in Southeast Asia. They bring a much-needed corrective to the prevailing policy narrative that geopolitical dynamics and great power politics drive regional states’ security behaviour. Both books show that Southeast Asian states formulate their own set of strategic interests and calculate which policies benefit their positions

Strangers Next Door? Indonesia and Australia in the Asian Century, Edited by Tim Lindsey and Dave McRae. Oxford and Portland, Oregon: Hart Publishing, 2018.

Reviewed in Contemporary Southeast Asia, Vol. 40, No. 3 (2018), pp. 530–32

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Despite the breadth and depth of the book, the absence of an analytical or theoretical framework that might have brought together the different insights provided by the chapters is unfortunate. Like any edited volume, coherence is often a challenge, especially given the multi-disciplinary backgrounds of the authors.

2016 Defence White Paper (Commonwealth of Australia, 2016) (available here)

Reviewed in Security Challenges, Vol. 12, No. 1 (2016), pp. 165-170

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As Canberra gradually abandons traditional security-centric assumptions about Indonesia, the DWP2016 sets the tone of the bilateral relationship in geo-economic terms. While DWP2016 provides a broader space for cooperation by highlighting the strategic goal of common prosperity, the changing strategic landscape — particularly the South China Sea and the US-China strategic rivalry — casts a long shadow over assessments of Jakarta’s regional leadership

Condemned to Crisis? By Ken Ward. Sydney: Penguin Books and Lowy Institute for International Policy, 2015. Hardcover: 152pp

Reviewed in Contemporary Southeast Asia Vol. 37, No. 3 (2015), pp. 505–8

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Condemned to Crisis? could not have come at a better time. While Indonesia–Australia bilateral relations have often been subject to ups and downs, the roller coaster ride seems to have grown more erratic in recent years. Indeed, lunging from crisis to crisis has seemingly become “the new normal” in how Jakarta and Canberra deal with one another, even as Australian observers maintain that a warm relationship with Indonesia is invaluable

Who Wins? Predicting Strategic Success and Failure in Armed Conflict by Patricia L. Sullivan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Reviewed in Political Studies Review, Vol. 12, No. 2 (2014): pp. 283-284

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This short book is an ambitious attempt to tackle some of the big questions in the field of international security. Why do great powers lose wars against much weaker opponents? Under what conditions can actors employ military force to achieve their political objectives? Why do actors decide to go to war and what determines their ability to prevail?

Neorealism, States, and the Modern Army by Joao Resende-Santos. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Reviewed in Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 45, No. 3 (2012), pp. 431-4

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This book’s chief value lies in being the first systematic attempt to provide a building block to our understanding of cross-national military diffusion and emulation, an under-developed and under-studied subject, and its attempt to refine Waltzian neo-realist theory