The contemporary international geopolitical landscape is witnessing the simultaneous processes of globalisation and localization, in which revival of ethnic identities and associated conflicts is the main concern. This development has falsified the popular belief that the post-Cold War world would be peaceful. Keeping this trend in mind, the edited book by Rajat Ganguly and Ian Macduff has attempted to study the causes, processes, and outcomes of secessionist ethnic conflicts in South and Southeast Asia from a comparative cross regional perspective.

�The book is divided into three broad parts, addressing these three interrelated issues and questions connected with ethnic conflicts in South and Southeast Asia. Rajat Ganguly establishes the challenge of ethnic insurgency and secession in the concerned regions in his introductory remarks. David Carment has sought to identify the main causal factors behind the growth of ethno-nationalist and secessionist sentiments and consequential conflicts in the regions. With the help of a comprehensive literature survey on the subject, Carment has classified the dynamic stages of ethnic conflicts and their possible ways of resolution. He identifies mass mobilization, intra-elite competition, primordialism, or relative deprivation as the root causes of ethnic secessionist conflicts. Their solutions include partition, power sharing, democratization, constitutional entrenchment of ethnic or minority rights, proportional division of key offices, mutual votes and so on.

�Presenting a remarkable historical account of the Kashmir problem Vernon Hewitt argues that ?a large part of the crisis is not because of the inflexibility between India and Pakistan over their claims to the former Princely State, but due to the overwhelming difficulty of defining a stable Kashmiri identity, either within India or Pakistan or within any future independent sovereign state?. Besides placing the focus on Kashmiri identity formation in the historical context the author also discusses the legal and procedural aspects of the dispute. But he fails to provide the possible pathways towards a resolution of the crisis.

�Teesta Ghosh investigates the demographic, territorial, linguistic, representational, economic and electoral dimensions of the ethnic conflict in the Sindh province of Pakistan. She considers the Sindhi and Mohajir movements as internal security threats to Pakistan rather than questions of identity and relative deprivation. Her conclusion is that ?in the absence of a democratic institutional framework the Sindh-Mohajir conflict will continue to be an unresolved issue within the body politic of Pakistan?.

�Peter Chalk deals with the ?most intractable ethnic conflicts in the contemporary international system? viz. the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam (LTTE) insurgency in Sri Lanka. After identifying the historical reasons for the LTTE cadres being motivated, dedicated and well trained, he examines the political, military and organizational factors that are the obstacles to peace. According to him, despite the various initiatives for peace the stubborn attitude of the LTTE and skepticism about their intentions in Sri Lanka and India provide little hope for the resolution of the conflict. The fact that ?both sides are slowly tiring of the conflict? is the only hope for peace.
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In the fifth chapter Mark Roll analyses the East Timor experience of Indonesia where the political structure and ethnic conflict are inextricably woven. Of all the case studies undertaken in this book East Timor is a classic case of conflict resolution through referendum. An important observation in this case is that in spite of the interplay between local, national and international forces Indonesia?s ASEAN neighbours pursued a policy of non-interference, which facilitated its resolution. The author believes that the resolution of East Timor conflict will have a major effect on other separatist movements in Indonesia like the one going on in the province of Aceh.

The Mindanao- Sulu region in the South Philippines has recently achieved partial autonomy after 50 years of the ethno-communal conflict between Muslims and Catholics. While evaluating the causes, dynamics, management and ultimate solution, Syed Serajul Islam stresses the colonial roots of the conflict in terms of a ?control model?, which was pursued by the post independence administration in Philippines. This trend is evident in all ethnic conflicts occurring in the developing world. The author also focuses on the internal dynamics of the conflict highlighted by the differences in the moderate, Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and extremist group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The involvement of Islamic terrorist organizations has brought the US into the picture in the post-9/11 period. Due to this changed international situation peace has become a mirage in this part of the world. On the contrary, the Islamic separatists groups, especially the Abu Sayyaf, have strengthened their ties with the international terrorist network.

Sometimes non-settlement of an issue is itself a settlement. The conflict on the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea is an instance where secession has neither failed nor succeeded. In this unique case, besides the questions of identity and socio-economic inequality, ?the disputes over compensation and contract terms with mining interests? had a major impact on the demand for outright independence. Violence and sabotage in the mines by the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) and consequential incidence of political violence, human rights abuses, economic decline, and degradation of health and educational services has converted this localized dispute into a conflict. Internationalization of the dispute after the unilateral declaration of independence by Bougainville and subsequent return of the Papua New Guinea Defence Forces to the region led to a protracted stalemate in the conflict. This helped the erosion of mistrust among the conflicting parties. The peace process in Bougainville has made tangible progress since 1997 but as the author (Roderic Alley) says, ?many years of physical repair, social reconstruction and psychological healing is needed before Bougainville can consign its tragedies to the past?.

These case studies reveal that ?the diversity of contemporary conflicts is increasingly being met by a diversity of responses??. On this note, Ian Macduff tries to explore ?the challenge of matching the responses to the conflicts? and emphasizes ?the importance of developing an integrated or co-ordinated approach between the diverse agencies? in his concluding chapter. Although the author privileges the role of participatory initiatives, he lays greater emphasis on ?the credible and legitimate force of international control?.� At the internal level Macduff suggests the ?Principles of Conflict Management Design?, which includes exit, increased autonomy, increased inclusion in national decision-making and power sharing, while at the external level he proposes ?Principles of Integration?, which means greater coordination of interventions and collaboration by agencies.

This book is a classic example of an edited work in which the contributors have maintained thematic and conceptual unity throughout the writing. The credit goes to the editors for providing the framework and concepts to the contributors. The detailed literature review in the first chapter by David Carment provides the right perspective to understand a work stressing a comparative perspective. It also establishes the use of comparative methodology for making certain generalizations. All the case studies provide in depth historical accounts of the ethnic-secessionists movements in two volatile regions of Asia. Although the book is quite ambitious in its objectives, it does adequate justice to its first two objectives of ?identifying the main causal factors for growing ethno-nationalist and secessionist movements? and ?examining the dynamics of the ethnic conflicts in South and Southeast Asia?. But so far as the third objective of ?examining the different options available for managing and ultimately resolving the conflict? is concerned, the work fails to provide clear insights for policy makers and researchers. It also gives very high importance to the role of external international agencies in conflict resolution. In actual practice these international agencies can work as facilitators in the conflict resolution but for actual management of the conflict the conflicting parties have to agree on a course of action. This lacuna has reduced the book to a collection of historical accounts of various ethno-secessionist movements instead of providing concrete policy suggestions to decision makers.

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