ABSTRACT
Over half a century ago John Smail outlined a vision for an “autonomous history” of Southeast Asia, one in which the colonial encounter was one moment in the long trajectory of Southeast Asian history (Smail 1961). This perspective rejects both the traditional colonial history in which major historical shifts in Southeast Asian polities are understood wholly through the eyes of an external actor and the “anti-colonial history” which perceives the colonizer in negative terms but nevertheless adopts the same Eurocentric perspective. This chapter follows Smail’s approach to understand international influences on regime change in Southeast Asia. Regime change in Southeast Asia always reflects national political concerns, domestic social and economic conflict, and local histories; but global politics everywhere mediates the dynamics of regime survival, breakdown, and transition.
