ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores how the US-led War on Terror, operating both as a set of material practices and as a larger discursive framework for security, influenced the security of both state and non-state actors in Southeast Asia after 9/11. It explores the various ways to define and approach “foreign policy,” ultimately arguing for a critical constructivist analysis of foreign policy as informed by David Campbell’s persuasive call to reorient our understanding of it. The book explains how the War on Terror itself is not unique in creating these insecurities but provided a felicitous scenario for the renewed continuation of American imperial formations in Southeast Asia. It looks at the evolution of regionalism and regionalization efforts in East Asia, and especially those related to security.
