Southeast Asia has never been the master of its own destiny. Indeed, its very identity,
economic structures and social formations have shaped by powerful external forces it had
only a limited capacity to influence of deflect. The recent East Asian crisis vividly
demonstrated that little has changed in this regard. What has changed, perhaps, is the
speed with which the multifaceted forces associated with globalisation can profoundly
undercut the developmental strategies, prospects and autonomy of these nations as they
grapple with the challenges of complex interdependence in an increasingly integrated
global political economy. Such forces are proving formidable challenges for even the
established industrial democracies that can draw on comparatively competent, longestablished
state capacities with which to manage them. The more vulnerable nations of
Southeast Asia are doubly disadvantaged by comparison, in that they have less
institutional capacity and more acutely pressing problems with which to deal.In such
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circumstances it is, perhaps, surprising that they made the progress they did before the
recent crisis brought them undone.