Democracy and Nationalism in Southeast Asia: From Secessionist Mobilization to Conflict Resolution

Jacques Bertrand offers a comparative-historical analysis of five nationalist conflicts over several decades in Southeast Asia. Using a theoretical framework to explain variance over time and across cases, he challenges and refines existing debates on democracy’s impact and shows that, while democratization significantly reduces violent insurgency over time, it often introduces pernicious effects that fail to resolve conflict and contribute to maintaining deep nationalist grievances. Drawing on years of detailed fieldwork, Bertrand analyses the paths that led from secessionist mobilization to a range of outcomes. These include persistent state repression for Malay Muslims in Thailand, low level violence under a top-down ‘special autonomy’ for Papuans, reframing of mobilizing from nationalist to indigenous peoples in the Cordillera, a long and broken path to an untested broad autonomy for the Moros and relatively successful broad autonomy for Acehnese.

‘An illuminating guide to how democratization offers pathways away from the violence of nationalist conflict – and to the many pitfalls along the way. Combining daunting knowledge of Southeast Asian cases with a relentless desire to compare, Bertrand has produced an essential work for specialists of the region, conflict, and nationalism.’

Edward Aspinall – Australian National University

‘This book provides an extremely rich and nuanced comparative analysis of the complex patterns of mobilization and demobilization, conflict and conflict resolution, observed in regions of Southeast Asia hosting longstanding secessionist/nationalist struggles. It constitutes a huge contribution to scholarship on nationalist/secessionist struggles and conflict resolution, democratization, and Southeast Asian politics.’

John T. Sidel – London School of Economics and Political Science

‘Bertrand offers an astute, original, well-supported argument about the shape, trajectory, and relative virulence of nationalist conflicts before, during, and after transitions to democracy. This largely institutional analysis highlights the potential democracy offers, but also the salience of credible commitments, institutional checks, and framing, signaling, and incentives on both sides.’

Meredith L. Weiss – University at Albany, State University of New York