Celebrate Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month 

May 24, 2019

The U.S. Government Publishing Office invites you to celebrate Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month by showcasing the achievements and cultural traditions of Asian Americans.

In this blog post, the U.S. Government Bookstore will feature a few curated titles from our Asian resources collection. In this collection, you will find an assortment of publications about foreign policy and international relations.

Here are a few hand-selected titles for your consideration, education, and enjoyment:

Learn about elected Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Congress, serving from 1900–2017 in this free ePub download. You will find biographical profiles as well as photos and key legislation of your elected Asian and Pacific Islander American officials.

The Mayaguez Crisis: Mission Command and Civil-Military Relations. This award-winning title was selected as a featured item for the Notable Government Documents 2018. The Library Journal wrote that the publication is “A fresh look into the 1975 Mayaguez Crisis, during which Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge seized the U.S. container ship, SS Mayaguez. It goes on to say that the author places the conflict into the wider global and historical context of trade, domestic presidential politics, and lingering legacies and frustrations surrounding the Vietnam War. The work includes more than 50 pages of endnotes, making it an excellent research document.”

Indonesia: A Country Study. In this text, you will learn about the geography of Indonesia, as well as the population and communities within its social class and civil society. This text also covers government, politics, employment, income, and the global economy of Indonesia. If you are considering a summer trip to Indonesia or wish to learn about peoples, and government, this publication is for you.

The Asia- Pacific Century: Challenges and Opportunities. This resource presents an expert panel of contributing authors to present their views of China’s growing influence in the region as its economic stability symbolizes a power of strength. The text, illustrated with charts and graphs, highlights Asia’s expansion into global trade while also increasing its military capabilities that may have an impact on future negotiations, especially in the area of nuclear arms and nonproliferation. You will gain some insights about Korean unification and strategic partnerships with India and Russia as a method to strengthen its energy interdependence. One of the recurring themes highlighted in this book is the U.S. Air Force’s evolving role to build positive relationships in efforts to increase diplomacy within the Asia-Pacific region as an alternative approach to meet a geopolitical strategy.

The GPO Online Bookstore – Easy Access to Federal Publications

HOW DO I OBTAIN THESE RESOURCES?

Sign up to receive promotional bulletin emails from the US Government Online Bookstore.

Shop Online Anytime: You can buy a vast majority of eBooks or print publications —with FREE Standard Shipping worldwide— from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore at https://bookstore.gpo.gov.

Visit our Retail Store: To buy or order a copy of any print editions from this collection at GPO’s retail bookstore at 710 North Capitol Street NW, Washington, DC 20401, open Monday–Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Federal holidays, Call (202) 512-0132 for information or to arrange in-store pick-up(s).

Order by Phone or Email: Call our Customer Contact Center Monday through Friday, 8 am to 4:30 pm Eastern (except US Federal holidays). From US and Canada, call toll-free 1.866.512.1800. DC or International customers call +1.202.512.1800.  Email orders to ContactCenter@gpo.gov

Visit a Federal depository library: Search for U.S. Government publications in a nearby Federal depository library. You can find the records for most titles in GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

Find more than a million official Federal Government publications from all three branches at www.govinfo.gov.

About the author: This week’s blog contributor is Maureen Whelan, Senior Marketing Team Leader for GPO’s Publications and Information Sales program office in Washington, DC. Maureen oversees print and digital content dissemination strategy and manages third party free and paid content distribution through platforms and vendors, such as Apple iBookstore, Barnesandnoble.com, Google Play eBookstore, Ebscohost databases, Overdrive, ProQuest, and more.

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Posted by Trudy Hawkins

Studying the Politics of Militant Islam in Southeast Asia

May 23, 2011

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m interested in international politics and global strategic issues, among many, many other things (as a reader, I’m a total magpie – and proud of it!). Since the recent unlamented demise of Osama bin Laden, the issues of terrorism and Islamic militancy are back in the news, but sometimes only superficially. Whole areas of the world continue to be ignored by the media, or appear to be on their back burner.

That’s why a book like A Muslim Archipelago: Islam and Politics in Southeast Asia, from the National Defense Intelligence College, is so illuminating. It provides both historical perspectives and contemporary insights into the origins and political position of Islam in Indonesia and its various components, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Islam in Indonesia, for example, has assimilated many characteristics of Hindu and animistic beliefs, making it vastly different than the austere Wahabism of Saudi Arabia or the fundamentalism of the Taliban. The book also points out that places like Acheh in Indonesia and the southern region of Thailand were independent Muslim polities until relatively recent times, resulting in a potent blend of religion and regionalism that sometimes explodes into insurrection. America’s own experience with the Moros of the Philippines in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War is only one example – and the Moros are still challenging the Filipino state today.

A Muslim Archipelago is also a lucidly written guide to the bewildering proliferation of militant groups. as in many extremist political movements, factions and splits are common. Jemaah Islamiyeh, Laskar Jundallah, and Laskar Jihad all appear within a few pages of each other in the section on Indonesia, but the book does a good job of differentiating their aims and actions. When (and I’m afraid it’s not “if”) the next flare-up of  insurgency or terrorism crops up in Southeast Asia, this book will provide the context within which to explicate the issues and personalities involved.

I hope policy makers and strategists, and political leaders around the world can benefit form the information in this excellent book – it’s in all of our best interests if they do. You can browse through it here or here (where you can also order it as an eBook!), get your own copy here, or find it in a library.

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Posted by govbooktalk