Book excerpt: This newly revised eighth edition of Southeast Asia in the New International Era provides readers with contemporary coverage of a vibrant region home to more than 650 million people, vast cultural diversity, and dynamic globalized markets. Sensitive to historical legacies and paying special attention to developments since the end of the Cold War, this book highlights the events, players, and institutions that shape the region. Employing a country-by-country format, the analysis engages in context-specific treatment of the region's eleven countries: Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei. Fully updated, the book's revised content includes Rodrigo Duterte's drug war in the Philippines, Malaysia's historic 2018 election ending four decades of UMNO rule, Hun Sen's latest power grab in Cambodia, and a consequential monarchical transition in post-coup Thailand. It also analyzes recent developments in the South China Sea dispute, the Rohingya tragedy in Myanmar, China's expanding Belt and Road Initiative, as well as the effects of the Trump Administration's tariffs and trade war. An excellent resource for students, this textbook makes sense of the region's coups, elections, policy debates, protests, and alliances, leaving readers with a solid foundation for further study.