ABSTRACT
Michael Leifer was born into a Jewish family in the East End of London. Michael Leifer is often regarded as an adherent of the Realist School. In Martin Wight's terms these are the hard men of International Relations who deal with blood and guns. Michael Leifer was very much concerned with the problems of security and survival of states in Southeast Asia and no amount of pious liberalism about the significance of trade or economic interdependence and institutionalism could address the very real problems of Southeast Asia. With the recovery of the Southeast Asian states from the immediate problems following independence, Leifer's attention shifted to studying the evolving character of the region's main multilateral institution, ASEAN.
